Clace?
by Marie Tomas
Summary: (AU) Art student Clary Fray has always loved the idea of love and romance, especially the romances and 'ships' of the fictional worlds that she and her friend Simon obsess over. One Friday afternoon, Clary heads to a coffee shop in Brooklyn after class, where two men called Magnus and Alec happen to be having their first date, and she quickly becomes invested in their love story.
1. Chapter 1

**Notes/Disclaimer:** This fanfiction is based on the characters and settings of the Shadowhunters TV show, however, it's set in a human/mundane alternate universe.

A coffee shop AU featuring Clace, Malec, fangirl Clary and barista Jace-who is endlessly amused by Clary's interest in Magnus and Alec's romance.

My attempt at writing about shipping and how easy it is to become invested in fictional romances and stories. :)

The song _War of Hearts_ by Ruelle is referred to in later chapters.

* * *

 **Clace?**

* * *

Clary Fray sat back in her seat at _The Half-Moon_ , the coffee shop she'd discovered about a half hour ago as she walked around the streets of Brooklyn, where she'd been getting a little fresh air after her last class of the week.

The coffee shop was a cool mix quirky and cozy, which is what had drawn her to it when she first spotted it less than an hour ago. The tables, chairs and wooden floor were plain and simple, but the dark blue walls were decorated with interesting paintings and various sophisticated photographs of the city skyline at night; there were candles on the tables (although Clary was pretty sure that they were artificial, as not one of them showed any hint of a flicker of a flame); and there was a piano in the far corner (although, to Clary's disappointment, it didn't look like the piano had been played for a while).

She let out a sigh as she brushed a stray strand of red hair out of her eyes. The coffee shop might look nice, but it was kind of warm inside. Warm enough that she didn't need to be wearing her leather jacket, but the jacket had once belonged to her mom when she was younger and it made her feel more comfortable, more secure. Although she couldn't help wishing that she'd worn her hair up today, the way she usually did when she had classes at the Brooklyn Academy of Art, or when she was using the school's art studios to work on projects, pretty much always favoring practicality over appearance.

With that thought in her head, she tried to focus on the sketchpad and the notes about her latest assignments from college which currently covered the surface of her table, instead of staring over at the man sitting straight ahead from her, at a table by the window.

She'd first seen him while she was waiting in line to order her drink a couple minutes ago, where he'd been looking cool with his dark hair styled into spikes, several rings on his fingers, earrings in his ears and beads around his neck. He was wearing a black shirt and expensive-looking jeans decorated with just a little glitter, and he definitely looked like he'd applied eyeliner. He'd also been wearing a lost-in-thought expression that briefly made him look older than she was sure he was, but then he'd seen her looking at him and he'd smiled politely, which had made him look young again. In fact, he looked just like the type of unique person who usually inspired her paintings or sketches of various interesting people who she encountered in the city.

The man had even let Clary go ahead of him in the line, waving her past with another friendly smile, which had kind of been a relief to Clary, as she'd been almost at the point of getting swallowed up in the crowd of late afternoon customers that mainly consisted of loud college guys, guys who Clary had only been able to describe as 'frat boys'-in her own private thoughts, anyway. She would have had no chance of getting past them all without the mysterious stranger's help, and her faith that at least some people in the world were kind had been restored a little.

Right now, though, her dubious faith in humanity would have to wait, because she had other stuff to focus on. She'd told herself that the point of heading to a coffee shop this afternoon was because she needed a quiet space to work, away from the girls who lived in her dorm who were always obsessing over the latest guys they were dating and playing music at the highest volume before they headed out to party in the city.

But she also couldn't help feeling like she needed a quiet space away from real life in general right now, too; a break from all the stuff that was bothering her…

She might have only spent a semester at art school, but she already felt like she didn't really fit in there. She loved all her classes, but outside of class, it seemed like the other students were so much… _cooler_ than she was; less awkward and more in tune with the real world.

Clary had a feeling that if her dorm mates ever discovered that she spent most of her free time sketching pictures of supernatural creatures and various imaginary couples from all the books and TV series she was obsessed with, and then uploading perfected versions of those drawings onto a site dedicated to fan art, where she and her best friend shared a joint fan account, they would probably think that she was even more strange than they already did.

Back at high school, Clary had always had her best friend, Simon, to hang out with and talk to about their problems, and Simon shared in her nerdiness and her passion for drawing fan art, while she shared his passion for music.

She'd kind of assumed that their closeness would continue after high school, but since they'd both moved away from their old neighbourhood to start college, all of the pretty girls in Brooklyn had suddenly seemed to decide that they were actually turned on by the whole 'geeky guy' thing, because Simon had rapidly and inexplicably turned into a 'babe magnet' (Simon's words, not hers) almost overnight, meaning that Clary usually had to take second place to whichever girl Simon happened to be dating, and the two of them didn't spend as much time together as they used to.

She was also missing her mom so much now that she'd moved out of the apartment that she and her mother had shared for all of Clary's life, so she could be more 'independent' by living in a dorm. She was happy that her mom was building a new life with her new boyfriend, Luke, especially when her mom had been so heartbroken after Clary's dad walked out on the two of them for good a few years ago, but it had been just the two of them for so long, and now Clary kind of worried that she and her mom were drifting apart as they started living their new lives.

Then there was the fact that she hadn't heard from her dad for months. Clary was almost done with being the one who constantly had to track him down and make the effort to stay in touch.

With another sigh, she tried to concentrate on her sketchbook again, reminding herself that she needed to work. She had another, more personal sketchbook in her backpack, too- the one that she used for her sketches of various couples and interesting characters who she'd encountered in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and all her drawings of supernatural creatures and characters from a lot of her favorite series. Ever since she was a kid, Clary had always been drawn to anything fictional that focused on the supernatural. After a while she kind of figured that it was based on this inner desire to escape the mundaneness of every day life-to maybe open a portal or a secret door into a different world. It was too bad that that could never happen in reality.

Along with the sketchbooks, there were at least three novels in her backpack about ghosts, vampires and werewolves (she was always reading at least three fantasy novels at any one time), but she resisted the temptation to open the backpack to find any of them. The last thing she needed was yet another distraction.

Unable to help herself, Clary stole another glance at the man at the table by the window. He'd seemed so calm and confident when he'd been waiting in line to order his drink, but now he definitely looked nervous. He kept fidgeting in his seat, folding and unfolding his arms, crossing and uncrossing his legs, his eyes darting around the room the whole time, like he was looking for someone.

After a couple of minutes, Clary noticed him taking out his phone. She couldn't help smiling to herself as she saw that the phone cover was decorated with what looked like sequins and diamonds. She kind of felt like a phone cover like that was typical of this guy, even though she didn't know him personally. As he checked his phone, Clary decided that he was probably waiting for someone who hadn't arrived yet, and she couldn't help wondering who that 'someone' was. Whoever they were, they definitely meant something to this man, if his tense body language and the nervous tapping of his foot were anything to go by.

A few seconds later, the door to the coffee shop opened and a tall man with dark hair and tanned skin walked in. The man was young-he only looked a couple of years older than Clary-and he was very attractive, although he didn't seem to realise how attractive he was, going by the way he shuffled into the room with his head down and his shoulders hunched, like he wanted the room to swallow him up, like he wanted to disappear. His clothes were plain and simple, a casual black jeans and T-shirt combination, almost like he didn't want to stand out in any way, and his hairstyle was a little careless, a little messy, even. Not that his slightly messy hair did anything to take anyone's attention away from his good looks.

Yet this tall, dark and handsome man didn't even notice that most of the customers waiting to pay for their drinks, both women and men, were either looking him up and down, blatantly checking him out, or simply watching him intently, as though mesmerized by how handsome he was.

He only looked up from the floor when one of the female customers (one of the few people in the room who seemed to be unaffected by the guy's attractiveness) called out, "Hey, Alec!", smiling and waving at him with a familiarity that suggested that she was a friend of his.

"Hey, Maia," Alec responded with a half-grin and a sort-of wave in her direction, sounding a little nervous and a little shy.

The second Maia had called out Alec's name, the man sitting at the table by the window quickly looked up, and Clary could tell by the way his eyes fixed on Alec, and the way his face suddenly took on an intense expression, and the way he sat up a little straighter, like he was really paying attention now, that this is who he had been waiting for.

Clary really didn't know much about real-life romance, but she guessed that the two of them were probably meeting here for a date, especially when Alec blushed as he caught sight of the guy by the window. She felt her heart beat a little faster with excitement, almost as though she was somehow sharing in a part of their date, even though that idea was crazy.

Almost tripping over on a couple of stairs that bridged the gap between the front door to the coffee shop and the tables along the way, Alec eventually walked over to the table by the window, and the man stood up as he approached, holding out his hands in greeting.

"Alexander," he smiled when Alec arrived at the table, and Clary decided that she liked the way this man used Alec's full name. It somehow sounded more intimate, more affectionate, more of a personal thing between the two of them.

"Magnus," Alec mumbled in reply, tripping over the word a little as he blushed an even darker shade of red.

 _Magnus_ , Clary repeated to herself as Magnus grinned at Alec. The name was perfect for him. It just seemed to suit him, and it made him even cooler than he already was-in Clary's eyes, anyway.

 _Magnus and Alec_ she said to herself. It was perfect. _They_ were perfect. Perfect for each other.

This is what Clary always did with couples and potential couples, even though she kind of wished that she could tone it down a little sometimes when it came to love and romance. However, most of her favorite couples-or 'ships', as she referred to them when she was around her fellow lover of fictional worlds, Simon- were just that, fictional, taken straight from a book or a movie or a TV show; but every now and again, she came across a couple in her real life who she just _knew_ had to end up together.

Over on the other side of the room, Alec still looked kind of terrified, but he allowed Magnus to remove his leather jacket for him and drape it over an empty seat, and then he managed to sit down awkwardly at the table opposite Magnus, and he took a sip of the coffee that Magnus offered him.

Clary knew that she should stop listening in on Alec and Magnus's conversation now, especially as she'd heard so many accusations in the past from her father and even Simon of 'meddling' and 'getting way too involved in other people's business', but she still couldn't help glancing over at them every now and again.

Alec still looked pretty scared, as he blushed and stuttered his way through the first few minutes of their date, or else he just went completely silent, looking like he didn't know what to say.

"I-I'm sorry," he eventually stammered, sounding a little breathless, "I don't know what I'm doing. I…uh…I've never done this-the whole dating thing before-and uh, yeah, you know that already, and I'm not goo-"

Clary noticed that his hand trembled as he placed his cup of coffee back down on the table.

"Relax, Alexander," Magnus replied smoothly with a reassuring smile, looking nowhere near as nervous. "You're doing fine...perfect, in fact."

 _You're perfect_ , he might as well have added, given the way he was looking at Alec.

Clary felt a rush of affection as she realized that this must be this guy Alec's first date ever. She'd never been on an actual date before, either (and she was pretty sure that all of her time spent with Simon didn't count, even though everyone they knew always seemed to assume that they were a couple), so she could only imagine how scary this must be for Alec, especially when his first date was with someone who was as confident as Magnus seemed to be.

Although she had a feeling that Magnus wouldn't care _what_ Alec did on their date-he just seemed to be so happy to actually _be_ on a date with Alec. He even looked relieved, kind of. Clary wondered if they had gone through a lot already just to get to this point.

As she glanced over at Magnus again, who was looking at Alec across their table with a look of blatant adoration on his face, Clary couldn't help feeling a little envious of Alec. Deep down, she wished that a guy would look at her the way that Magnus looked at Alec.

"Aren't they _adorable_? Aren't they _amazing_?"

Clary was startled out of her thoughts at the sound of a man's voice from just behind her, the tone of voice full of sarcasm.

She looked over her shoulder to see one of the male baristas standing behind her, with a sarcastic smirk on his face, and a hand placed mockingly over his heart.

His eyes kept flickering from Magnus and Alec to Clary, looking like he was trying not to laugh the whole time, his actions enough to let her know that he found her apparent interest in the attraction between these two men amusing. The name tag clipped to this guy's plain white work shirt revealed that his name was Jace.

Clary knew that objectively, this guy was hot; he was tall, and toned, and muscular, with blond hair and what looked like splashes of gold in his eyes, and his arms were covered in tattoos of various words in other languages and symbols.

However, as hot as he was, Clary was instantly reminded of all the jocks back at her high school who'd gone out of their way to make her and Simon's life hell; the ones who'd been rude and shallow and obsessed with nothing more than their appearance, and working out at the gym or on the football field, and hitting on all the pretty girls.

As she thought about the guys from high school, Clary felt an irrational rush of irritation towards this guy, Jace, as well as feeling weirdly embarrassed by his mockery, and she couldn't help glaring at him as a result.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Clary replied to him as she folded her arms, trying to look cool, aloof, disinterested, and not like she'd just been caught out. She wondered if the room had gone even warmer than before, because she felt a flush creep to her cheeks, and her hands felt a little clammy.

"Sure you don't," he replied with another smirk and a very annoying wink, and Clary wondered why she got this strange urge to blush. She decided it must be because she was still feeling embarrassed about getting caught staring over at Magnus and Alec.

Clary continued to glare at Jace until he shrugged and walked away to clean a couple tables, grinning the whole time.

When she was alone, she let out a few irritated huffs and mumbled something about guys being jerks before she focused on her college work again, trying to be a lot more discreet about looking up over her sketchpad every few minutes to see how Magnus's and Alec's first date was progressing.

After a little while, she briefly left her table to go take a bathroom break. When she returned, she noticed that there was a fresh cup of coffee waiting for her on the table. She frowned to herself in confusion; she couldn't remember ordering another coffee.

In the end, she shrugged and drank it, vowing to offer to pay for it if turned out that she'd been given someone else's coffee by mistake.

She felt a little better as she finished her coffee and returned to her work. Magnus and Alec were still here on their date, with Magnus doing enough talking for the two of them, and the coffee had tasted even better than her first one.

Sure, she might have felt a little embarrassed earlier at getting caught by Jace staring at the two men, but it wasn't like she was ever going to come back to this coffee shop and see him again, right?


	2. Chapter 2

Clary knew that maybe she shouldn't have gone back to the coffee shop; she knew that rationally, she had no reason to, apart from the fact that it was pretty near to campus, but somehow, she couldn't resist heading in that direction again a week later after class, trying to tell herself that it was a pretty convenient place to get work done.

She had to resist the urge to smile after she sat down at the same table and she realized that Magnus and Alec were back, sitting at their table again by the window, on another date.

In a weird way, she felt _involved_ now in this budding romance; she was invested in what the outcome would be, even though she was pretty sure that anyone else would think that she was kind of crazy if she tried to explain it.

Simon would understand…she hoped. He kind of _got_ her interest in love and romance. But as Simon had cancelled their plans this afternoon to go out on another date, she couldn't exactly ask him what he thought about all this right now.

Clary looked around the coffee shop almost guiltily as the two men started to drink their coffee together, almost like she was checking that the coast was clear (clear from what, she didn't know), but she was happy that the other customers were pretty much oblivious to her presence, most of them couples who were too busy talking to one another to look away from their own tables, and one other guy in the corner of the room whose face was hidden by a large classic book that he was apparently engrossed in reading.

From what Clary could hear of Magnus and Alec's conversation today, they were talking about their first date last week, with Magnus looking a little perplexed as he explained something to Alec.

"Did you really think that I wasn't going to show up?" Alec suddenly asked Magnus, a confused frown on his face.

"No," Magnus replied a little too quickly, his tone of voice sounding pretty unconvincing as he looked out the window for a moment, like he was avoiding meeting Alec's eye.

"I uh…I gotta admit, I was pretty terrified, at the thought of going on a date, especially a date with you…" Alec blushed, still looking as nervous and as uncertain as he had looked last week. "But, in the end, it was my brother who convinced me to go through with it-if telling me to 'get it together' and 'go out into the world and get laid' can really count as moral support…" Alec blushed an even deeper shade of red as he said the last part of the sentence-Clary guessed that he was pretty uncomfortable when it came to talking about sex.

"Ah, yes," Magnus sighed with an exasperated grin, "the same brother who threatened to 'kick my ass' if I 'ever did anything to hurt you' when I encountered him on the subway a couple days before our first date…."

Alec rolled his eyes and then groaned, looking both embarrassed and irritated by his brother's behavior, but Clary couldn't help smiling to herself in amusement. Alec's brother-whoever he was-sounded pretty tactless, but at least he had somehow encouraged the two of them to admit their feelings for one another, in his own way.

For the next hour or so, Clary alternated between working on her latest assignment and glancing over at Magnus and Alec's table.

She noticed how Alec often frowned, like he was overthinking everything, but every now and again, Magnus managed to coax a nervous smile out of him, making him look young and carefree for a couple seconds. Magnus, on the other hand, seemed to smile a lot, his body language relaxed as he flirted blatantly with Alec and frequently made him blush. Yet sometimes, his face would take on a more serious expression; there would be a hint of pain in his eyes as he looked away from Alec-the hint of a darker past, and Clary couldn't help wondering what his life had been like before he met Alec for a date at the coffee shop. Maybe she was just reading too much into it, but the way she saw it, the two of them both seemed to have their own stories, their own inner demons.

They were the perfect complement to one another, Clary decided, as she watched Magnus lean across the table to whisper something in Alec's ear, running a reassuring hand over his arm, and Alec seemed to calm down a little for the next few minutes.

Suddenly, Clary really wanted to sketch a picture of the two of them. They both fascinated her-Magnus with his makeup and his jewellery and the intensity that seemed to hide right behind his bright eyes and flirty grins, and Alec with his good looks and his serious expressions and his messy hair. The two of them so different, but so obviously into one another.

She really wanted to interpret that story in her sketchbook, to draw something that reflected this budding romance in a Brooklyn coffee shop on a Friday afternoon, the way she did with many other couples in the city, all the other couples who had their own love stories...

It was only as Clary was getting up to leave a half hour later, lost in thought at the idea of her artwork, that she noticed Jace, hanging around near her table. She jumped slightly when she caught sight of him-she hadn't even seen him come in.

"Back again?" he greeted her with a raised eyebrow and what was definitely an amused smirk as she walked past him on her way out.

"Whatever," Clary replied sharply to him before she carried on towards the door, wondering why her heart had started to beat faster, and why her face felt flushed.

* * *

A week later, Clary found herself 'accidentally' heading in the direction of _The Half-Moon_ coffee shop again after class on Friday.

Luckily for her, Magnus and Alec seemed to schedule their dates for pretty much the same day and time every week.

Since she'd made the decision to draw a sketch based on Magnus and Alec's dates at the coffee shop, she'd been determined to complete it. She'd kind of thought about drawing their picture back in her dorm room, but she felt like she just needed to see them another time at the coffee shop to make the picture more accurate.

Clary had to be extra discreet as she took her personal sketchbook out of her backpack and began the black-and-white sketch, making sure to pile several of her college books up around the sketchbook on the table, so that nobody could see what she was doing.

She'd always had a personal preference for black and white pictures. Maybe it was because there was something that made them look old-fashioned, almost like they were of another time, or like something out of the classic novels she sometimes liked to read. Or maybe it was because there was an air of mystery about a sketch without color, something a little unspoken, hiding in the shades of grey.

As she sketched, she could hear parts of Magnus and Alec's conversation across the room.

Alec still acted nervous around Magnus, but they seemed to be getting a little more familiar with each other and each other's personal lives. From what they were saying, Clary worked out that Magnus lived somewhere near the coffee shop, and Alec seemed to work somewhere around there, which was probably why it was convenient for them to meet here.

They moved on to talking about the people in their everyday lives. Clary picked up on a few names, like 'Maryse', 'Maia', 'Jonathan', 'Madzie' and 'Catarina'.

Magnus then asked Alec how his mother was doing now, sounding pretty sympathetic, and Clary noticed that Alec responded with a concerned-looking frown before he mumbled something under his breath.

Clary frowned in concern, too. She didn't know Alec, but she really hoped that his mom wasn't sick or something.

When Jace arrived to start his shift, he greeted Clary with another smirk and a wink, not looking surprised to see her again at _The Half-Moon_.

Clary rolled her eyes at him in response.

 _Why do boys always wink at people?_ she wondered to herself as she hastily searched in her backpack for the latest book that she was reading, deciding that now might be a good time to stop sketching her picture of Magnus and Alec.

Clary was so engrossed in her novel (this one was about a werewolf who was in love with a human, and she was pretty sure that she was going to read the whole series), that she only just looked up from her book in time to see Alec reaching tentatively across the table to hold Magnus's hand as he blushed.

Clary let out an involuntary gasp of shock, overcome by how adorable the two of them looked as they held hands (she had a feeling that a gesture like that was a really big deal to Alec). At the same time, she placed her hands over her heart.

"Is everything all right?" Clary heard a guy's voice ask her. Quickly removing her hands from her heart, she looked to her left so see Jace staring at her with a raised eyebrow and a pretty baffled expression on his face.

"Everything's fine," Clary replied quickly, trying to compose herself and feeling weirdly embarrassed again. Dammit, she hadn't noticed that Jace had been standing so close as she watched Magnus and Alec hold hands and then let out what must have been a pretty loud gasp. She realized that her gesture might have looked a little over the top to the outside observer.

"Okaaay…" Jace mumbled slowly in response, frowning in apparent confusion, although Clary was pretty sure that he knew _exactly_ why she'd just reacted that way. He turned slowly and walked away, but Clary caught him laughing to himself as he headed back over to the counter to serve customers.

Clary sighed to herself as she gathered up her things, now ready to leave. She was sure that she was already the source of a load of lame jokes between Jace and his barista buddies.

* * *

A week later, Clary sat at her table in the same coffee shop and put the finishing touches to her sketch. She'd been going for something classy-looking with the black and white sketch, but she couldn't resist adding in a few bright red hearts above Magnus and Alec's heads in the picture, the way she used to do back in middle school when she'd first starting drawing pictures of her favorite fictional couples.

She knew it was pretty childish, and that Magnus and Alec weren't actually a fictional couple from one of her supernatural-based obsessions, but she kind of felt like it was a nice touch, especially with the way that Magnus was currently looking at Alec, while Alec stared into his coffee cup, blushing about something that Magnus had just said, the two of them already looking like they were totally in love.

She hastily scribbled Magnus and Alec's names above their picture, but after staring intently at the names on the paper for a little while, she suddenly got an idea.

Quickly, Clary erased the names and wrote the word ' _Malec_ ' at the top of the picture instead, coming up with what she believed was an awesome combination of their names. She kind of felt like the two of them deserved their own portmanteau, as she already cared about them as much as she cared about her favorite couples from the books that she had loved for years.

She thought back almost nostalgically to the times when she and Simon used to hang out in Clary's room after school, the two of them coming up with 'ship names' for their favorite fictional couples, and then trying to come up with similar combinations for the couples and potential couples they knew in real life.

Letting out another sigh, Clary placed her sketchbook in her backpack, deciding that she was satisfied with how the picture had turned out, then she searched for her headphones so she could listen to music.

She needed a break from all her thoughts about Simon and the past for a little while, and there was something soothing about listening to her favorite songs as she finished her coffee.

Clary had always loved music-she loved the thought that went into writing songs, the way a singer could pour all their emotions out into a microphone. She'd always kind of wished that she had more talent in that area; her dad had taught her to play guitar when she was a kid, but she hardly ever practiced anymore, and she was an okay singer-Simon sometimes asked her to be one of the backing singers for his band when they were playing gigs in the city, but she would never be as good a singer as Simon was.

It was the piano though, that really fascinated Clary. Something about playing the piano always reminded her of the characters from her favorite romance novels. She really wished that someone would try to play the piano that sat in the corner of the coffee shop-it would probably add to the ambiance of the place.

Clary only stopped listening to music on her phone when she received a call from Luke, asking her advice on what to get her mom as an anniversary gift. Clary stepped away from the table to take the call, needing to find a quieter corner of the coffee shop to be able to hear what Luke was saying, leaving her books scattered all over the surface so people would know that the table wasn't available.

When she returned to her table, her coffee cup had mysteriously been topped up. Clary looked around the room with a suspicious frown, but the only person who was standing close to the table was Jace, cleaning another table a few feet away from hers and not even looking in her direction.

Clary shrugged and sat down to drink her now-hot coffee, deciding that she didn't care that she was getting coffee she hadn't paid for again, not when the coffee tasted so good.

* * *

"No, Simon, I promise, it's totally fine…I'll see you next week, okay?"

Clary ended her phone call to her best friend with soft-spoken words and a smile, even though Simon couldn't actually see her facial expressions through the phone. But she hoped that the smile at least made her sound sincere, and like she genuinely didn't mind that he had cancelled their plans again. Although she doubted it. Clary was a terrible liar.

Clary had deliberately headed to the coffee shop a little earlier today, so she would have more time to catch up with Simon later. The two of them had made plans to hang out, maybe grab a couple non-alcoholic drinks, and she was going to help him pick a new playlist for his next gig and show him some of her newest sketches. Now, however, going out for dinner with his latest girlfriend was apparently more important.

Clary hugged her leather jacket a little tighter around herself, as though seeking comfort from it. After a couple deep breaths, she told herself that it was okay, that she would just have more time to hang out here today, instead; that she had her own work to do for college and she could just sit at her table and focus on that and maybe get something productive done. Anyway, Magnus and Alec had just arrived for another date, so that was an added bonus.

 _At least you two are happy spending time together_ , she thought wistfully to herself.

Clary took out her notes and her art school sketchbook and began practicing for an upcoming assignment that focused on shading and optical illusions.

She kept getting a little distracted by Magnus and Alec though-the two of them were currently drinking hot chocolate, and Magnus kept trying to feed Alec marshmallows. He wasn't having much luck though, because Alec kept blushing and refusing to eat the marshmallows out of Magnus' hand, while Magnus grinned the whole time, rolling his eyes affectionately.

Clary had just smiled to herself, thinking about how adorable they were as she picked up her cup of coffee, when-

"So, how's Malec today?"

At those words, Clary froze with her cup halfway to her mouth.

She turned slowly to see Jace, standing by her table with his arms folded and a triumphant grin on his face, looking like he was trying really hard not to laugh.

Clary felt her heart beat faster in panic. Surely she hadn't heard him right? Surely he hadn't seen…?

There was no way he'd seen that word in her sketchbook…no way. She'd been so discreet when she sketched their picture. Right?

A denial or an excuse was right on the tip of her tongue, even though her conversation with Simon had just proved yet again that she was a bad liar, but Jace cut her off before she could tell another lie. "You're not exactly the most subtle person ever…Clarissa Fray," he told her with another smug smirk.

Clary widened her eyes in shock and confusion, wondering how the hell he knew her name, when she suddenly remembered she had just been writing her full name in block letters in her college book, using the letters for practice with shading techniques, unable to come up with an original drawing to practice on. The name must have been fully visible to him every time he walked past her today. She felt like such an idiot.

"Clary," she automatically corrected him.

"Huh?" he asked her.

"It's Clary, Clary Fray," she repeated, firmly.

All of her friends called her Clary. It was only her dad who made a habit of calling her by her full name.

Clary was hit by memories of the last time her dad had been in her apartment block, drunk and yelling to her mom from the stairwell: "I just want another chance to make things right with you and Clarissa!", or the time before that when he'd been yelling, "I promise I've changed, Clarissa!".

Clary shuddered. Jace definitely wasn't her friend, but she really didn't want him to get to know her as 'Clarissa'.

"Clary," Jace repeated, his voice now sounding softer, for some reason. "Anyway, Clary," he continued, now sounding like a jerk again, "I really hope that Malec's doing okay?"

"They're fine," Clary replied through gritted teeth, trying not to blush.

Jace shrugged and turned to walk away from her, muttering something about leaving her alone with 'Malec'.

Clary felt a rush of anger. She folded her arms and raised an eyebrow, getting into the defensive stance that always made Simon panic a little when they were out together and someone said something to piss them off, as he always knew that her trademark defensive stance meant that Clary was probably going to say something that they would both regret later, or she was going to throw the two of them into some kind of unnecessary conflict.

"You know," she suddenly said, the words already out of her mouth before she could think them through as she tried to sound as condescending as ever. Clary might have always been a little geeky, but she had never been shy; she'd never backed away from standing up for herself or putting people in their place. Even though some of those people had been twice her size, much to Simon's horror whenever he was with her. " I really wouldn't expect someone like you to understand…"

Clary felt a strange rush of satisfaction as Jace stopped in his tracks and turned back around slowly to face her.

He walked back towards her.

"Someone like me?" he asked her with a raised eyebrow and folded arms. However, he was also grinning, like Clary's insult was kind of funny to him, like her answer to his question would be the source of curious amusement, rather than offense.

"No offense," she shrugged, raising her eyebrow in return as she kept her arms folded, now kind of enjoying having Jace's full attention, even though she didn't know why, "but you don't seem like the kind of guy who would think too deeply about love and romance…"

"You wound me with your words, Clary Fray!" Jace replied in mock offense, placing a hand over his heart as he momentarily put on a heartbroken look before he laughed and winked at her.

Clary couldn't help smiling a little, too. It was refreshing, to know that he could take her insults in good humor. She'd always kind of felt like she had to tiptoe around the men in her life, trying not to do any damage to their precious egos or say anything that could potentially cause them any offense. Yet she had a feeling that Jace and his friends insulted each other playfully all the time; she had a feeling that he could take it.

"Anyway," he continued, "how do you know? Maybe I stay up late at night reading classic novels, or playing the piano, or painting romantic pictures, while I dream about the day my soulmate walks into my life…"

"I'm sure," Clary replied sarcastically. She highly doubted that guys like Jace spent their evenings doing stuff like that. In fact, she was pretty sure that Jace spent his evenings partying with the prettiest women in the city, or getting drunk with his buddies while they all watched sports or something.

With another laugh at Clary's sarcastic reply, Jace left the table to go make coffee for a group of customers.

Clary ran a hand awkwardly through her hair, now allowing herself to fully feel the embarrassment at the idea of Jace watching her draw her 'Malec' picture over the past couple of weeks, and probably laughing at her expense the whole time.

She was just thinking about leaving for the day when Jace walked past her again. Discreetly, he placed a cup of coffee down on her table.

Clary looked up at him in confusion, but he simply shrugged and walked away again, heading back to the counter.

Clary stared at the full cup of coffee, now wondering if it was _Jace_ who had been bringing free coffee to her table this whole time, even though she didn't get why he would do that.

The coffee was a cappuccino, and on closer inspection, she saw that he had designed the chocolate powder into the shape of a musical note.

Clary stared at it for a little while longer, still feeling confused, but then she remembered what Jace had said before, his joke about staying up late, playing the piano or something, and she wondered if this was his way of joking with her about their conversation.

Unable to help it, Clary laughed to herself as she picked up the coffee cup. It felt like the first time that she had laughed for _months_.

She took a few sips of the coffee, trying not to smile as she thought about Magnus and Alec, who were holding hands across their table, and Jace, who was still one of the most annoying people that she had ever met (and he probably thought that _she_ had a near-crazy obsession with the two guys who sat at the table by the window at the coffee shop where he worked), but he made an _amazing_ cup of coffee.


	3. Chapter 3

"The sex step?"

Clary was briefly distracted from her sketchbook by Magnus and Alec's latest topic of conversation at their usual table in the coffee shop.

She'd been heading to _The Half-Moon_ a lot over the past few weeks, with the coffee shop kind of becoming her regular Friday afternoon hangout.

Usually, she alternated between doing a little college work, reading the latest book series that she was into and listening to the suggested playlists for Simon's gigs that he sent her almost every week.

Sometimes, like today, Jace was there, with his smug smirks and his raised eyebrows, but his smirks and his raised eyebrows usually came with free coffee, so Clary had kind of decided that she was pretty much okay with Jace often being at the coffee shop.

On other days, it was just Alec and Magnus, with their new relationship progressing a little with every date.

Putting down her pencil for a moment to take a break from drawing, Clary glanced up from her sketchbook to look over at Magnus and Alec's table.

"The sex step," Alec responded to Magnus's question, sounding pretty serious, almost like they were both discussing a major political issue. However, Clary also picked up on the obvious nerves in Alec's voice, the way his voice shook a little, and the flush that crept to his cheeks.

As Magnus and Alec's discussion continued, with Magnus voicing his concerns that maybe it was too soon, and his fears that he could lose Alec if they rushed things, Clary turned away from them to give them a little privacy. She knew that sketching a picture of the two of them probably looked bad enough to guys like Jace who worked at the coffee shop, but she was even more certain that it would be crossing a line to listen in on this personal conversation.

Clary tried to concentrate on her pictures again. Last night, she'd completed a sketch of two wolves, one with jet black fur and the other with bright white fur, the scenery around them showing heavy snow and a grey sky. She'd kind of been inspired by reading her latest book series about werewolves.

Today, after deciding that she needed a break from studying, she planned to fill in the blank page right next to the picture of the wolves with a vampire-themed sketch. Opposites attract, or something like that.

She started to sketch out a picture of two male vampires, trying to decide if she should portray them as rivals or allies, but she couldn't help glancing over in Jace's direction every couple of minutes, letting herself get distracted. He was working behind the counter, serving a bunch of customers, and he seemed to be flirting with pretty much every good-looking woman who was waiting in line, especially the ones who were wearing revealing outfits and making what sounded like suggestive comments as they flirted back.

Clary couldn't help rolling her eyes. Jace seemed to flirt with attractive women a lot, from what Clary had seen over the past few weeks. Not that she generally paid a lot of attention to what he was doing. It looked like the flirting had its advantages for Jace, as judging by the amount of times women handed dollar bills over to him, he was well paid for his 'charm' in tips.

As soon as Jace finished serving customers, he headed to a room at the back of the shop to help his male buddies with the washing up, if all of them splashing each other with water from the taps as they playfully insulted and shoved each other could count as helping.

Clary looked from a laughing Jace to a nervous-looking Alec. She felt both a twist of sympathy for Alec and a flash of envy for Jace's easy laughter and flirting-his general comfort in social situations. Clary doubted that Jace ever had to worry very much about taking the sex step. Not that she cared about Jace's sex life.

Shaking her head as though to clear it of her most recent thoughts, Clary returned to her sketch. She only finally looked up from the picture as Magnus and Alec got up to leave, holding hands and muttering something else about taking the sex step. Alec must have been pretty persuasive in his discussion with Magnus.

Clary had just given their retreating backs a half-smile of encouragement, silently wishing the two of them luck and almost feeling nervous on Alec's behalf, when she noticed that Jace was standing close to her table.

"Wow," he muttered as he walked past her, his eyes widening as he looked directly at the picture she'd just sketched of the two vampires, the sketchbook still wide open.

By the sarcastic tone of his voice, it didn't take much else for Clary to understand that his 'wow' definitely hadn't meant anything positive.

* * *

A couple of weeks later, Clary sat at her usual table at _The Half-Moon_ , admiring the way her latest sketch had turned out. She'd been so busy with assignments lately that she was glad she now had the time to hang out at the coffee shop and look at her own sketches again.

She kept getting a little distracted from her sketch though by Magnus and Alec. The two of them had pushed their chairs up close to each other, and Magnus kept leaning back into Alec, turning his head back to kiss his boyfriend, the two of them also holding hands as they played footsie under the table.

Clary noticed that Magnus's clothes were a little more revealing today; he was wearing ripped jeans, and he'd left the top buttons of his shirt unfastened. She decided that maybe Magnus had been dressing more conservatively than he usually did on his first few dates with Alec (if his earlier outfits could even be counted as 'conservative'), probably so he wouldn't make Alec feel even more nervous, but now that they'd obviously taken the sex step, Magnus seemed more relaxed about his choice of outfit.

Clary couldn't help smiling to herself. It didn't take a genius to see that taking the sex step had worked out pretty well for the two of them.

Both of them looked so happy, with Alec looking especially young and carefree, like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders, like he no longer cared about anyone seeing him share affection with his boyfriend.

"You're beautiful," he muttered, as he looked into Magnus's eyes.

Clary smirked as Magnus blushed. She felt happy for Magnus, that he'd found someone like Alec. Nobody had ever called _her_ beautiful. Well, expect her mom, but moms kind of had to say that their daughters were beautiful.

"So, is all this just because you think they're 'hot'?"

Clary almost dropped her coffee cup in surprise at this random sentence.

She turned in her seat to see Jace, who was standing by her table and looking from her to Magnus and Alec with his arms folded, then he seemed to look down almost unconsciously at the sketch on the table, the one of the two vampires.

"What?" Clary asked him with an irritated frown, but then she looked down at the sketch, too, taking in the sight of the two male vampires staring intently, almost hungrily at each other, the picture full of obvious homoerotic undertones. Then she remembered how she'd been sketching that same picture last week as Alec talked to Magnus about taking the sex step; she remembered how Jace had walked past her with his muttered, "Wow," and Clary suddenly understood what he was trying to ask her.

Great, the annoying guy who worked at her favorite coffee shop clearly thought that she had some kind of fetish or something; he obviously thought that she was only interested in Magnus and Alec's dates because she thought that they were hot.

"Hey, I'm not judging…" Jace held up both his hands in what looked like a gesture of surrender. Yet Clary was pretty sure that he _was_ judging her. "I'm just trying to figure out what it is about them that fascinates you so much, or what it is about them that brings you back here every week…"

Clary looked away from him for a couple seconds. She couldn't tell him that the main reason why she was here today was because she had nobody else to hang out with, because that would sound way too tragic, even though it was true; her mom and Luke were away on a mini-break, her dorm mates had gone out to pick up fake IDs so they could try to get into some club called Pandemonium later, and Clary had no interest in being a part of it, telling herself that it was out of an irrational fear of somehow getting caught and then getting kicked out of school after she'd worked so hard to get in there in the first place, but it was mainly because she figured that Pandemonium would be pretty pretentious and would probably be full of even more people like her dorm mates. Then there was Simon, who was now attempting to date two women at once without either of the women finding out what was going on, so he'd been even more distracted than usual lately.

Jace gave her a half-grin as he finished his sentence, apparently oblivious to the fact that he was the only person who actually wanted to talk to her today, but then he looked from Clary to Magnus and Alec again, and Clary was sure that she detected a hint of concern in his expression, even though she couldn't explain it. It was almost like he felt _protective_ of them…or something, but Clary didn't get why that would be the case. Why would Jace care about two men who met up at his workplace for dates? Jace didn't seem to care very much about anything that went on at work, apart from getting to flirt with pretty women at the counter.

"Are you always this concerned about the wellbeing of your customers?" Clary asked him with a confused frown, hoping that the sarcasm was obvious in her voice.

"Only the ones I like," Jace replied, his usual smirk now back in place. He seemed to look her up and down for a couple seconds as he spoke, and Clary felt strangely disconcerted.

Fighting a sudden urge to blush, and still feeling at a loss as to why Jace cared so much, she ran a hand through her hair and mumbled, "You wouldn't understand," sounding annoyingly pathetic, even to her own ears.

"Try me," he shrugged, looking at her with his usual amused look, making Clary wonder yet again if he went home every night to his friends or family and told them funny stories about the crazy red-head who he encountered at work every week, with all of his family members-whoever they were-sharing a laugh at Clary's expense.

Or maybe he was just bored at work and she was a source of temporary amusement to him.

"I just like love and romance," Clary shrugged, looking down at the table, feeling strangely shy for the first time in her life.

As Jace continued to stare at her with a confused expression, Clary picked up her sketchbook and, for reasons completely unknown, she offered it to him to look at. She decided that this must be her attempt to look a little less crazy, a little less obsessed with Magnus and Alec. Or maybe it was because she wanted him to understand her a little better, to at least try to see things from her point of view before he mocked her.

She felt her heart beating fast as Jace took the book from her with a wary expression and started turning the pages. Handing him the sketchbook had almost felt like she was giving away a part of her soul.

Slowly, Jace continued to turn the pages, and Clary could picture in her mind the drawings that he was seeing on every page-Clary knew her sketches so well that she pretty much knew the order of them by heart.

She knew that he'd see the sketch of the couple walking through Times Square hand-in-hand late at night, another couple taking a horse and carriage ride through Central Park, then a drawing of a man proposing to his partner on the Empire State Building Observation Deck, two women ice skating together at The Rockefeller Centre, an elderly couple sitting next to each other on a bench at the park, still holding hands after spending years together…picture after picture inspired by couples in the city.

Then he would get to her more supernatural-themed sketches-pictures of ghosts and vampires and werewolves and the couples from her favorite series.

As he turned the pages, Jace raised his eyebrows, but Clary could have sworn that he actually looked impressed by her pictures. He even turned the book to the side a couple times, like he was looking at the sketches from different angles, appreciating them from different perspectives...but then his usual smug, arrogant look quickly returned, and Clary detected the hint of a mocking smirk again.

"You're the strangest girl I've ever met, you know that?" he asked her as he handed the sketchbook back to her.

"Thank you," Clary replied with a smirk of her own.

"It wasn't supposed to be a compliment, Fray," he replied, sounding kind of exasperated, but Clary was already ready for him.

"It would have broken my heart," she continued, hoping that her sarcasm was obvious this time, "if you'd said that I was anything like the girls who _you_ usually flirt with…"

She folded her arms and smirked, feeling pretty pleased with herself.

For a second, Jace stared at her with wide eyes, but then he started laughing, his laughter sounding real, happy.

"That was pretty good," he told her with a smile after he'd stopped laughing, like he was actually impressed by her insult, like he didn't even care that it had been used at his expense-or more accurately, at the expense of his taste in women. It almost made up for the fact that he was probably still silently judging her for her behavior, even after seeing her sketches.

Jace continued to laugh as he walked away from the table to greet a couple of his co-workers who had just started their shift.

Feeling a little better now, Clary got more comfortable in her seat and read a few chapters of her book, trying not to worry too much about the fact that Jace now knew about the contents of her personal sketchbook.

* * *

It took Clary a few more weeks before she returned to _The Half-Moon_. She wasn't sure if it was because she was too busy with her latest assignment, or because she felt a little nervous about facing Jace again after she'd showed him her personal sketches in her sketchbook last time. It was almost like waiting to run into someone again after they'd read your private diary entries. In the end, she decided that maybe her reluctance to return was due to a mix of the two things.

Almost to Clary's relief, there was no sign of Jace when she walked through the door into the coffee shop. After her usual wistful glance over at the piano in the corner of the room, she noticed that Alec was sitting alone at his table, deep in conversation on his phone. Yet his constant glances out the window suggested that he was impatient for Magnus to arrive.

As she walked over to her table, Clary walked right past Alec, and she could just make out a guy's voice on the other end of his phone, saying something like, "Play it cool, bro…"

Alec didn't seem to be in agreement with whatever the guy on the other end of the phone was advising, because he kept insisting that he had to 'follow his heart' and 'say what he was feeling'.

With a confused shrug, and an almost unconscious roll of her eyes at the use of the term 'bro', Clary headed to her table and sat down. She found one of her books in her backpack (this one was about a teenage girl who seemed to be falling in love with a handsome ghost who haunted her bedroom), but she was too distracted staring at Alec, who kept fidgeting, breathing heavily and running his hands through his hair, to be able to concentrate on reading. Clary wondered what was making him so nervous today.

As soon as Magnus arrived, Alec practically jumped out of his seat, almost sending the chair crashing to the floor.

"Magnus…I love you," he said quickly before Magnus could even greet him. Alec sounded a little choked up, his voice full of emotion.

Magnus froze for a second and stared at Alec with his eyes wide, looking totally taken aback by Alec's words.

Clary gasped a little in shock, too. She wondered if Magnus was taken aback because the declaration of love had happened so soon in their relationship, or because it was shy, nervous _Alec_ who was making such a bold declaration. She waited with bated breath for Magnus's response.

Suddenly, Magnus blinked a couple times, like he was regaining his composure. "I-I love you, too, Alexander," he replied, a soft, affectionate smile spreading slowly across his face.

Breathing heavily in apparent relief, Alec took a few short strides towards Magnus and kissed him.

Magnus responded eagerly, earning them a round of scattered applause and wolf-whistles from a few of the baristas as the two men held each other tightly.

Clary felt a rush of emotion, a rush of _happiness_ on their behalf. She almost hadn't come here today-she'd told herself she had too much work to do, told herself she didn't want to deal with Jace's sarcastic comments again, but it had totally been worth it to get to see such a beautiful declaration of love.

"I love you both, too," she whispered, the words leaving her lips almost involuntarily as she placed her hands over her heart and smiled, feeling a sudden urge to blink back tears.

" _Wow_ …"

Even without turning a little in her seat to look over her shoulder, Clary knew exactly who had just spoken, especially as the word was just a repetition of what she'd already heard before from the same guy.

Jace seemed to have only recently arrived for work, because he was still wearing a leather jacket. Clary could have sworn that there was a novel in the inside pocket of his leather jacket, almost like he was trying to hide it from view, but she knew that that wasn't important right now, not when she was potentially facing more mockery from Jace.

She folded her arms and glared warningly at Jace as he passed her with a raised eyebrow, giving her the usual look that said that he was completely baffled by her reaction.

As the minutes passed, Clary wondered if her behavior today might have finally encouraged Jace to keep his distance, especially after his reaction to her sketches last time, not to mention today's muttered 'wow' after he caught her reaction to Alec's declaration of love for Magnus, but after a little while, Jace walked past her again and discreetly placed a cup of coffee on her table before he walked away even faster than he usually did.

This time, Jace had shaped the chocolate powder into two hearts, no doubt in tribute to Magnus and Alec's declaration of love. Clary knew that he was probably mocking her for her over-the-top reaction, but she didn't care.

As she took a sip of the coffee, she looked around the room, searching for Jace. He was standing near the back of the room now, cleaning tables. When Clary caught his eye, he smirked and winked at her.

This time, Clary couldn't help smiling back at him.


	4. Chapter 4

Clary sat huddled in her seat at her usual table at _The Half-Moon_ , her hair falling in messy curls over her shoulders.

She didn't even care that she probably looked a mess today, or that Jace had given her a strange look when he left for the day after he'd finished his shift early-it was a look that suggested that he was maybe a little concerned for her wellbeing.

She folded her arms, trying to pull her mom's leather jacket even tighter around her body, almost wishing that the jacket would just swallow her up.

As she sank down a little further in her seat, Clary couldn't help replaying her most recent argument with Simon over and over in her head.

The two of them had bickered all the time ever since they were kids, but they hadn't had a fight as bad as the one they'd had yesterday for years.

The memory of it was made worse by the fact that before their argument yesterday, Clary hadn't even seen him for a couple days, and they hadn't spoken much on the phone to each other for what felt like months.

Then, when Clary finally got to spend a little time with her best friend yesterday afternoon, their 'reunion' had ended up turning into an argument over Simon's insistence on sneaking around so that he could date two women at once.

Clary knew that she could be a little naïve and overly romantic, but still, she wasn't comfortable with what Simon was doing-it just felt dishonest. Not to mention that she could already imagine how bad things were going to go when the women inevitably found out what was going on. Like her, Simon was also pretty bad at keeping secrets.

"This isn't like one of the love triangles in your favorite book series, Clary," Simon had told her with a grin when Clary vaguely voiced her disapproval of what he was doing, his tone of voice sounding kind of patronizing, kind of condescending, which had instantly caused Clary to feel her first flashes of anger and hurt.

"I can't _believe_ you just said!" she'd started yelling at him before he could finish explaining that 'the dating scene' was different in the city, that this is what everybody did, that dating was more of a casual thing at college...like he was now some kind of expert and Clary was still like a naïve little kid who learned about romance through reading fairy-tales.

She'd always thought that Simon understood her passion for love and relationships, even the fictional ones, but now it felt like he was trying to leave their days of sharing fictional worlds and 'ship names' and drawing fan art together behind.

Their argument had gradually got more heated, with Simon trying to insist that Clary was overreacting, and that maybe she was just a little tired from all her studying lately, which hadn't helped Clary to calm down. It had done just the opposite, and she'd been so tempted to yell something about how he had _no idea_ how she was feeling lately, because he hadn't been around.

"I don't even know you anymore," Clary had told Simon sadly instead, just before she stormed out of his room, making sure to slam the door behind her.

She hadn't heard from him since.

Clary let out yet another sigh, trying to bring her thoughts back to the present. Even Magnus and Alec weren't enough to distract her from her more negative thoughts right now, which was kind of a shame, because they were being particularly adorable today.

They were sitting close together, and for the past couple of minutes, they'd been sharing a pastry that Magnus had bought for the two of them, with Alec even allowing Magnus to feed him now.

Magnus had just started to show Alec what looked like sketches of various clothes and accessories on a large piece of paper that he'd spread all over their table. Clary guessed that Magnus probably worked in something to do with fashion, because he kept talking about dressing clients for photo shoots as he pointed to each sketch (as well as throwing in a few flirty comments about 'undressing Alec' every couple of minutes, which made Alec blush).

As Magnus continued to talk about the latest designs and accessories, Clary leaned forward almost involuntarily in her seat; as miserable as she felt today, right now she really wished that she could see the sketches on Magnus's table. Any kind of artwork fascinated her, and she loved to see other people's interpretations on paper or on canvas.

She sat back quickly in her seat, reminding herself yet again that she didn't know Magnus or Alec and she'd probably look a little weird if she did something like walking slowly past their table so she could see Magnus's pictures.

"They're amazing," Alec told Magnus as he draped an arm almost casually over Magnus's shoulder, and Magnus smiled, looking pleased with himself.

As Magnus continued talking enthusiastically about fashion, Alec brushed his fingers against Magnus's chest, caressing the bare skin on display where Magnus had left the buttons of his shirt unfastened. Every now and again, Alec would also hook his fingers into the holes of Magnus's ripped jeans, almost like he really needed to touch the skin on Magnus's legs, too, like he needed to be in close physical contact with his boyfriend at all times.

The touches were almost unconscious, as Alec kept nodding along with Magnus as he spoke, looking serious as he offered the occasional comment and suggestion, like he wasn't even thinking about the physical affection anymore, like it just came naturally now.

Eventually, Clary managed a half-grin at their behaviour. There was something so… _domestic_ about the two of them today, like they were totally in sync with one another as their relationship was developing. Clary could only imagine what that would be like, to be with someone who made you feel complete.

She sighed again, feeling strangely lonely. Suddenly needing someone to talk to about her fight with Simon, Clary took her phone out of the pocket of her jeans and dialled her mom's number.

Luke answered her mom's phone, sounding really enthusiastic about something. Forgetting for a moment about her problems, Clary couldn't resist asking him what he was so happy about.

He said something about heading to a work party tonight with her mom, and the event was taking place at a local art gallery. Her mom was apparently really excited about the venue, and she'd been searching for weeks for the perfect outfit, and now she was anxiously getting ready for the big event.

Clary suddenly realized that she couldn't burden her mother with her problems right now, not when her mom was clearly looking forward to a night at the art gallery with Luke. She knew her mom would only spend the night worrying if Clary started complaining about Simon over the phone.

As Clary put on what she hoped was an enthusiastic smile and quickly told Luke that she'd call her mom back tomorrow, Luke must have picked up on something in her tone of voice, because he interrupted her by saying, "No, Clary, it's cool, talk to your mom-I'll just go get her-"

"No, Luke, seriously, it's fine. I'm fine," Clary insisted, wondering how many times she'd lied and told people she was fine this semester. "You guys have a great night. I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?"

Before Luke could protest any further, Clary hung up the phone. She packed up all her stuff in her backpack as she prepared to leave. As adorable as Alec and Magnus were being today, right now, all she wanted was to head back to her dorm and just sleep all afternoon.

* * *

"You looked me right in the eye and lied to me!"

Clary jumped, startled, as she looked up from her latest sketch to look over at Alec and Magnus's table. She'd been sketching a picture of a large wave about to crash to the shore, and she was trying to decide where to go with the rest of the sketch. She'd decided that the wave looked a little too threatening to be used to depict some kind of romantic scene on a beach. She was kind of thinking about adding a couple of mermaids to the scene, maybe showing a doomed love between a mermaid and a human…

"Why are you making this personal?!"

Right now, however, she was completely distracted from her latest sketch by Magnus and Alec's argument.

She wasn't sure why she was so surprised by the fact that an argument had broken out between them-she'd already noticed when she arrived at _The Half-Moon_ today that Magnus had looked a little irritated while he waited for Alec at their table, and Alec had also arrived looking tense. Still, she'd kind of hoped that she was only imagining things, that they'd work everything out before an argument started.

"This is about my family!" Alec was now yelling at Magnus.

"This is about _us_!" Magnus snapped back at him.

Clary quickly turned away from the two of them, almost wishing that she could cover her ears like a child. She hated arguments, and deep down she knew that it was because they reminded her of the arguments her parents had always had back when she was a kid.

Almost without thinking about it, Clary turned in her seat a little and looked over her shoulder, discreetly searching for Jace. As much as he usually irritated her, she almost wished that he were here right now-something about Jace's presence at _The Half-Moon_ always made her feel a little calmer, with his smirks and his mocking laughter serving as a reminder that plenty of things could just be shrugged off or laughed at; that life didn't always have to be taken so seriously.

Unfortunately, a few of the attractive women who Jace typically flirted with seemed to be thinking along the same lines, because there was a group of them at the counter right now, asking Jace's fellow baristas and his boss where Jace was today.

Jace's boss simply shrugged, telling them that Jace had taken a day off today, muttering something about 'family stuff', and Clary rolled her eyes as the women let out obvious sighs of disappointment.

"So pathetic," Clary said out loud as she glanced in their direction again, not even caring if they heard her. She deliberately ignored the fact that she'd felt a similar pang of disappointment at Jace's boss's words.

"You know how much I care about this! You know how much I care about how _you_ feel!"

Alec's words seemed to carry all over the coffee shop, and they snapped Clary out of her thoughts about Jace.

She took a few calming breaths, firmly telling herself that all couples argued, that this was just another form of communication in relationships, that relationships weren't always happy and perfect all the time.

Clary tried to distract herself from the argument by continuing with her sketch, but she couldn't focus on drawing right now. She knew that she could just sit and read instead-she had a new supernatural book series in her backpack about fallen angels that she'd picked up at a second-hand bookstore near campus, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to focus on reading when she could still hear the argument.

Eventually, Clary reached for her headphones. Simon had recently sent her a new song called _War of Hearts_ that he was thinking of covering at his next gig, insisting in his message that she would love it.

Clary suspected that this was Simon's attempt at a peace offering after their argument, but she still wasn't ready to talk to him yet or to answer his calls or his messages.

Right now though, she was grateful for any kind of noise that would drown out Magnus and Alec's argument, so she opened up the link he'd sent her and listened to the music.

The song was beautiful, and Clary sat back in her seat for a couple minutes, taking the time to really listen to the lyrics as she drank her coffee. Simon was right; Clary loved the song already. After the song had finished, she used the Internet connection available at the coffee shop to search for other versions of _War of Hearts_ , deciding that she wanted to hear different interpretations. As she listened to the acoustic version, Clary decided that this version was perfect. She almost started typing a message to Simon to tell him how much she liked it, but then she remembered all over again that she wasn't talking to Simon.

Clary was just listening to the song again when she noticed Magnus get up out of his seat and storm out of the coffee shop.

As Clary removed her headphones and stared across the room in shock, Magnus slammed the door behind him as he left.

Her eyes darted to Alec, who was now sitting alone at his table and running his hands through his hair, his expression a mix of anger and helplessness. Clary didn't know the details of the argument, but she couldn't help feeling sorry for him.

After a couple of minutes, Alec also got up from his table with a heavy sigh and left the coffee shop, with Clary watching him helplessly as he went, still holding her phone in her hand, like she hadn't been able to move since Magnus walked out.

As she thought about Magnus and Alec's argument, and her own argument with Simon, Clary started dialling the one number that she'd vowed she wasn't going to dial again for a long time; it was the number that she always called when she knew that all else had failed.

"Clarissa?"

Clary heard her full name being spoken the second he picked up the phone, his tone of voice sounding a little confused, a little impatient.

"Hey, Dad," Clary sighed.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd talked to him; she wasn't even sure if she'd seen him in person since she started college. She still felt his presence wherever she went in the city, however, as it wasn't unusual for her father's picture to appear on the front cover of magazines and journals focusing on business and finance in the city whenever Clary happened to be walking past various newsstands on the streets. Her dad was a pretty successful businessman, when he wasn't getting drunk and getting into arguments. He could be persuasive and charismatic, and a lot of his clients often fell for his charm.

"Clarissa, it really is great to hear from you," her dad continued before Clary could even ask him how he was doing; he paused their conversation for a moment so he could yell something to one of his colleagues about finding a financial record, then he started to yell something to one of his interns about bringing him coffee. "But I'm just heading to a very important business meeting right now. A bunch of new clients, a major financial deal in the works…you know how it is. Can I call you back later?"

"Uh…yeah, sure," Clary responded, trying to sound positive, upbeat. She wasn't sure why she was so disappointed by her dad's response, because it wasn't like she was surprised by it.

"I promise I'll call you back later, Clarissa," her dad insisted as he ended their call, still yelling at his interns the whole time.

Clary hung up the phone with a sigh. Already, she knew that he wouldn't call her back later.

Now feeling like she was completely out of options for people to talk to today, she put all her stuff in her backpack and got ready to leave.

As she headed back to her dorm to do something productive like studying, Clary hoped more than anything that Magnus and Alec would have resolved their argument by the time she headed to _The Half-Moon_ again.

* * *

In the days that led up to her next visit to _The Half-Moon_ , Clary told herself over and over that Magnus and Alec would work everything out; that their argument had just been the result of a bad day, that it was nothing serious, that they'd be back to laughing and joking and flirting again by next Friday.

She couldn't believe how invested she'd become in this relationship already; how much she believed in their love; how genuinely anxious it made her feel at the thought of Magnus or Alec being upset.

She'd almost convinced herself that everything would be okay between them as she approached the door to _The Half-Moon_ a week later, but she felt her new-found sense of hope flicker and die out a little as she caught sight of Magnus through the large front window of the coffee shop, sitting alone at his and Alec's table and looking pretty upset.

Feeling nervous now, Clary went through the door and walked down the couple of steps and past Magnus's table at an extra slow pace.

She could see that Magnus was on his phone now, and he kept saying the name Catarina, so Clary assumed that this was who he was talking to. From what she could remember of Magnus and Alec's past conversations, she was pretty sure that Catarina was a friend of Magnus's.

Suddenly, Magnus sighed and muttered something to Catarina about his recent break up with Alec.

Clary froze on the spot, her eyes widening in shock.

 _No, no, no…_ she kept repeating over and over in her head, like this would make it not true, somehow.

Surely it _wasn't_ true, though? Magnus and Alec were in love; they were perfect for each other. They couldn't have broken up...

Almost in a daze, Clary forced herself to keep moving. She headed to her table and sat down, feeling like her movements were happening in slow motion.

Clary tried to do something, anything, but she couldn't think, couldn't focus; she couldn't bear to look over at Magnus, who was now looking so devastated as he sat alone at his table, looking out the window every few seconds, like he almost hoped that Alec would show up, but he knew deep down that this wouldn't happen. Not now. Not today.

Suddenly, Clary knew that she had to leave. She couldn't be here today, she couldn't deal with this.

Less than five minutes after she'd arrived, Clary was already heading out the door. As soon as she stepped outside, she noticed that Jace was there, leaning almost casually against the outside wall with his arms folded. She guessed that he must have just arrived to start his shift, because he was still wearing his leather jacket, and his body language suggested that he was attempting to hang around outside for as long as possible before he had to go inside and start doing any actual work.

Clary stopped and stared at him, still feeling a little dazed.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked her as a flicker of what looked like real concern crossed his face.

"Malec broke up."

The words were out of Clary's mouth before she could even think about what she was saying. She cringed internally as she realized that she'd just said the word 'Malec' out loud in front of Jace, instead of using Magnus and Alec's full names. Like Jace didn't think that she was weird enough already.

Jace stared at her for a couple seconds, like he was thinking about what to say, like he was working her out, like he wanted to say _something_.

"Malec broke up." He eventually repeated the words back to her with a nod and a sigh, and Clary could also detect a little sadness of his own in his words, although she had no idea why Jace would have any reason to be upset about the break up of two of his regular customers.

However, something about Jace's words served as a confirmation to Clary-they made what had happened between Magnus and Alec true, heartbreakingly _real_ , and Clary was hit with what felt like a wave of sadness.

Clary felt something wet trickling down her cheek. She blinked quickly in confusion, feeling something wet on her other cheek, too. It actually took her a few seconds before she realized that she was crying.

Feeling completely mortified, Clary quickly tried to brush the tears away. She knew that Jace already laughed at her for being overly invested in Magnus and Alec's relationship, and she didn't want to look like even more of an idiot for crying. Besides, she'd only ever allowed her mom, Simon and Luke to see her cry before.

But her attempts to stop crying only made Clary cry even harder. She suddenly felt like she had been trying to hold these tears back for weeks and she couldn't stop them now that they had started.

For his part, Jace was standing and staring at her with wide eyes, looking pretty terrified. Clary guessed that he wasn't used to seeing women break down in tears in front of him.

"Hey," he muttered after a few seconds of silence, his tone of voice now sounding soft, protective almost, all hints of sneers and smirks completely wiped from his face.

He moved towards her slowly, looking really uncertain, before he opened his arms out to her, his movements a little awkward.

As he pulled her awkwardly towards him, wrapping his arms around her, Clary could tell that Jace didn't really do this a lot-she could sense that he wasn't much of a hugger in his everyday life.

For a moment, Clary wanted to step back, tell him that she was fine, shrug it all off, push him away, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She already felt too upset, and she knew that if she pushed him away now, there would be no one else who would comfort her today.

As she continued to sob, Clary knew that she wasn't just crying over Magnus and Alec's break up: she was crying because her and Simon still weren't talking, and she missed him, even though she was still mad at him; she was crying because she missed spending time with her mom, missed the weekends they'd spent at the apartment, watching old movies and completing their paintings and sketches together; she was crying because she didn't fit in with her fellow college students who had easily fallen into a 'young adult' life of partying and dating; she was crying because her dad still hadn't called her back.

As Jace held her a little tighter, Clary was hit by the sudden realization that it felt kind of nice, being this close to Jace, in spite of the unfortunate circumstances. His well-toned arms felt strong, protective, and he smelled really good-his scent was clean, fresh, almost like soap in a weird, surprising way-or flowers, maybe, even though Clary knew that it was a little crazy that she was thinking about how good Jace smelled right now, especially when he usually annoyed her so much every time she encountered him inside the coffee shop.

The thought of how good it felt to be held in Jace's arms only made her cry even harder on his shoulder.


	5. Chapter 5

Deep down, Clary knew that she shouldn't have come back to _The Half-Moon_ coffee shop for a little while, especially not after last week, when she'd broken down in Jace's arms, allowing her emotions to take over, letting herself get upset over Magnus and Alec's relationship problems.

Besides, she knew that it would be unbearable to sit at her table every Friday from now on, knowing that Magnus and Alec had broken up.

And yet, acting on what seemed to be a kind of addiction to situations and emotions that weren't good for her-making her wonder briefly if she was actually more like her dad than she'd always thought-Clary found herself back at the coffee shop, sitting at her usual table, exactly a week after her emotional breakdown outside with Jace. She almost felt relieved that Jace didn't seem to have arrived for work yet.

A part of her had hoped that Magnus and Alec would somehow get back together at some point during the week, but this false hope quickly flickered and died (a little like the hope that her father would get in touch with her had also flickered out over the past couple days) when she walked through the door and noticed that Magnus was at the coffee shop, sitting alone at his table and looking pretty devastated.

Even from a distance, Clary could tell from her discreet glances over towards the table by the window that the breakup was already taking its toll on Magnus; he hadn't bothered to apply his eyeliner today, his clothes looked pretty casual compared to his usual choice of outfit, and he wasn't wearing as much jewelry as usual. He also looked totally exhausted.

Feeling a rush of sympathy and an inner sadness every time she looked over at him, Clary eventually resorted to her usual technique of trying to distract herself by drawing.

Over the past couple of days, she'd started sketching pictures of flowers, not really knowing why she'd suddenly been inspired to sketch flowers, or where she was going with the sketches. She'd thought that maybe she was going to use the flowers to depict some kind of meadow scene, like the one in a book series that she'd read a while ago, but in the end, Clary had decided against it, determined that she didn't want to draw a sickly-sweet romantic scene right now.

This morning, she'd come up with the idea of maybe turning the flowers into red roses with thorns, beautiful but deadly, a perfect set up for some kind of supernatural scene, so she'd brought her red pencils in her backpack today to continue with the sketch. She'd just managed to draw a couple more red roses, but then the urge to look back over at Magnus to see how he was doing was too strong, and she couldn't help staring at him again, lost in a daydream the whole time.

"Wow, Malec's really got you heartbroken, huh?"

Clary blinked a couple of times, feeling almost startled by the interruption, as she'd been so focused on Magnus. She felt a little flushed as she realized that she must have been sitting as though frozen for at least five minutes with her red pencil still in hand as her eyes trained on Magnus's table.

Her movements much slower than usual, Clary put down her pencil and turned her head a little to see that Jace had arrived for work; he was standing by her table and staring at her with his usual raised eyebrow.

Clary felt a sudden rush of shame and embarrassment when she looked at him as the memory of last week flooded her thoughts; the knowledge that he'd seen her cry, seen her at her most vulnerable, and also the uncomfortable recollection of how nice it had felt to be comforted by Jace, how good he'd smelled up close. Running a hand through her hair nervously, Clary found herself hoping that he wasn't going to take today as an opportunity to mock her for her behavior last week.

As Jace smirked a little, Clary fought a strong urge to look away or to blush bright red. Instead, she folded her arms and raised her eyebrow. "I have other stuff going on in my life, you know!" she snapped irritably at Jace.

She hated the idea that he believed that the breakup was getting to her _this much_ , that it had broken _her_ heart, as well as Magnus's.

However, it was true that over the past few weeks, Magnus and Alec had provided her with an awesome distraction from the realities that existed all around her in her everyday life-realities of failed marriages and strained relationships and friendships. The two of them had given Clary real-life hope that true love still existed; a dream that it _was_ possible to meet the perfect person and learn how to share each other's lives and be happy together. _The Half-Moon_ had been her little bubble away from reality for a while, her escape. But now, since the breakup, she felt like the bubble had finally burst. It was enough to make anyone feel a little heartbroken.

Of course, Clary decided not to tell Jace about any of that, and she also decided not to tell him about how she'd had a weird desire since last week to lay around on the couch all day, eating ice cream and watching trashy movies as she cried on Alec and Magnus's behalf. She almost hoped that this wish to wallow in self-pity was merely a by-product of everything else that was going on in her life right now, and not just a reaction to the breakup.

Jace simply smiled in response to Clary's harsh words, before he held his hands up in his typical gesture of surrender. "Well, I'm not good at the whole tea-and-sympathy thing or whatever," he shrugged, "but if you wanna talk-or yell-about something, I can listen…"

"Really?" Clary asked him suspiciously.

Jace nodded, and for a moment, his expression looked softer, more sympathetic, the way he'd looked last week when Clary was crying…but then he had to ruin it by smirking and shrugging and saying, "Hey, it'd sure beat cleaning tables or serving angry customers…"

Clary kind of wanted to roll her eyes and tell him to leave her alone, but for some strange reason, she opened her mouth to speak, and next minute, she was telling him all about her dad, complaining about how he hadn't called her back since the last time she'd talked to him.

She hadn't realized that this issue was still bothering her so much-she'd thought that it was just her fight with Simon that was making her feel so upset lately, but apparently it _was_ still getting to her, because it was the first thing she'd started to talk about as soon as Jace had provided her with an opportunity.

"That sucks," Jace told her with a sympathetic nod as Clary finished telling him about how unreliable her father was, looking like he really meant it.

Clary wasn't sure what she'd expected him to say, and she knew he hadn't exactly given her the most eloquent response ever, but somehow, it made her feel a little better that he seemed to be taking her seriously, that he'd given voice to just how much the situation sucked.

"Yeah, it sucks," Clary replied with a sigh.

Jace turned around and took a few steps away from Clary's table, like he was going to clean another table close by, but then he suddenly stopped in his tracks. He stood still for a moment, like he was thinking about something, then he turned back around and headed back to Clary's table.

Before Clary could frown at him and ask him what was up, he started to tell Clary about how he'd found out recently that his father had been cheating on his mother.

His expression looked totally guarded as he spoke. He also spoke slowly, like every word was a major effort, like he was embarrassed that he was even saying this out loud.

Jace went on to tell her how his mom was totally devastated and kept crying all the time; how he'd never thought his dad would do something like that; how he didn't know what to do or say to help the issue-how everything he _did_ say always turned out to be 'totally insensitive' and 'tactless', according to his parents…

Clary stared at him in surprise the whole time he talked. In a weird way, she'd kind of assumed that good-looking, confident guys like Jace always went through life without any major problems, without any emotional baggage to deal with. It was therefore a little strange to hear him talk like this, to know that an issue like this was happening in his personal life.

But then she reminded herself that this way of thinking was just high-school-thinking: seeing the world in black and white, seeing people clearly divided between lucky and unlucky, winners and losers, or jocks and nerds or something. She knew that now she was a little older she would have to start thinking about the shades of grey in the world, would have to start considering that everybody had their own stuff to deal with, even the people who looked like they were happy all the time.

Jace finished talking with a sigh, wearing a rare weight-of-the-world-on-his-shoulders expression that kind of reminded Clary of Alec for a moment, for some strange reason.

Clary had always thought that Jace was pretty much an open book, with his easy smiles and the way he seemed to share everything with his fellow baristas. But now, she started to wonder if Jace was a lot more guarded that she'd first thought. She wondered if he kept parts of himself secret from the world.

Clary stared back at him in silence for a little while, still feeling surprised that he'd opened up to her like that. But then she quickly reminded herself not to feel too flattered by it-she had a feeling that Jace probably talked like this to other customers, too, especially the attractive women who paid him well in tips. Although she did allow herself to consider the possibility that Jace was evening the score between the two of them now, allowing Clary to share in one of his big secrets after _she'd_ told him about her dad, and after he'd seen her at her most vulnerable last week.

"That sucks," Clary eventually told him, feeling like an idiot for simply repeating his own words from before back to him.

"Yeah, it sucks," he shrugged in response, echoing her words. He then walked away from her table to serve the ever-increasing line of customers, leaving Clary alone with her thoughts and her sympathetic glances in Magnus's direction.

Jace seemed to keep his distance for the rest of his shift, and Clary wondered if things had got a little too deep and depressing for him today at Clary's table. Or maybe her 'heartbroken' looks at Magnus were too strange for him to deal with. Not that Clary cared if he stayed away. Much.

However, after she came back from a bathroom break, she saw that there was a fresh cup of coffee waiting for her on her table.

Clary sat down and stared into the cup, noticing that Jace had shaped the chocolate powder into a smiley-face today. She wondered if it was an attempt to make her feel better.

Even though she still felt pretty miserable, Clary suddenly felt a strange rush of something that was kind of like the affection she'd always felt for Magnus and Alec, although today, it wasn't directed at them.

* * *

"What's with all the little red hearts at the top of every other picture, Fray?"

Clary rolled her eyes at Jace, who was standing close to her table at _The Half-Moon_ , leaning casually against the nearest chair, on a break in the middle of his shift today.

Clary was kind of surprised that Jace had stood by her table for almost all of his break, but then she had to remind herself that he _had_ asked her with a smirk when he first came over if he could see her 'amazing' sketchbook again, so it was pretty obvious that he just saw her as a source of his entertainment (or mockery, more accurately) on this rainy Friday afternoon at a coffee shop in Brooklyn, before he had to carry on working.

Clary was sure that laughing at _her_ while he was on his break beat spending time alone at the back of the coffee shop.

Clary didn't really mind the company right now, though; showing her sketches to Jace was a brief distraction from watching Magnus, who also back at the coffee shop this afternoon, still alone and looking more miserable than ever.

She'd noticed when she arrived that Magnus had also spread his own sketches all over his table, and he seemed to be attempting to work on them; but she also couldn't help noticing that he kept looking out the window every few minutes, his expression pretty miserable, like he just couldn't focus on anything right now.

Clary put all her effort into turning away from Magnus and towards Jace, who was looking at a couple of her older sketches of various fictional couples with both a raised eyebrow and a smirk on his face (as well as the occasional frown), like he was torn between amusement and total bewilderment.

A few of the couples in the pictures were drawn with some kind of illustration of red hearts just above their heads, which Clary guessed had prompted his mocking question.

" _I_ think the hearts are romantic," Clary insisted, her tone of voice firm, almost defensive, like she really wanted to defend her pictures against Jace's mockery, "it makes it obvious that the couples in the picture are into each other…"

"I think you already made that pretty obvious," Jace replied with wide eyes as he looked at one of her more recent sketches of two male supernatural creatures-one an angel with wings and the other clearly a demon-the two of them sharing a heated gaze, the 'forbidden' attraction between them undeniable.

"Whatever," Clary simply replied, unable to come up with a witty comeback this time and feeling embarrassed that Jace had discovered yet another of her sketches depicting two males who were clearly attracted to one other.

To make things worse, Jace then turned to a couple of other smaller sketches of vampires and werewolves that she'd been drawing over the past few weeks, in the privacy of her dorm room. He rolled his eyes several times as he looked at the pictures.

Clary allowed herself a small smile at Jace's reaction, realizing that she was actually enjoying herself. It was kind of nice to have someone to hang out with, especially as she still wasn't talking to Simon, even if that 'someone' probably still thought that she was a little strange.

But then, almost without thinking about it, she turned back to look at Magnus, who was sighing sadly as he read a couple of messages on his phone, and Clary felt her grin rapidly fade.

In a weird way, she felt guilty about smiling and laughing-even for just a few brief moments-when Magnus looked so unhappy. She just wished that she could do _something_ to help Magnus and Alec work things out.

Clary turned her attention back to Jace again, who was now staring at another one of her sketches with a smirk.

Clary leaned forward a little in her seat and saw that it was a picture she'd completed a while ago, back at high school. The drawing was of a woman with long, jet black hair, who was wearing a short leather skirt and a revealing leather T-shirt-wearing her beauty like a weapon, almost. She also wore high-heeled boots, and her dark red lips were formed into a suggestive smirk, like she knew something that nobody else knew.

Clary had been thinking about drawing a couple more sketches of this imaginary woman, maybe coming up with a comic strip where she was some kind of spy, or a secret agent, or maybe even a vampire-perhaps the dark red on her lips was blood, not lipstick…

Trying not to get too carried away by her usual supernatural-based thoughts, especially when Jace was standing so close, Clary tried to come up with something to say about the sketch. "She's hot, right?" she asked Jace with a knowing smile and a raised eyebrow, asking the first question that came into her head.

"I guess," Jace replied with a casual shrug, not looking very interested, which surprised Clary a little. She'd fully expected that someone who looked like the woman in the picture would be Jace's type in real life.

The woman had definitely been _Simon's_ type-he was totally fascinated by that picture when he'd first seen it back at high school. So much so that Clary had painted a larger version of the sketch as a birthday gift for her best friend last year, and then he'd displayed it happily on his bedroom wall, even taking it to college with him at the start of the semester, where it now hung on his dorm room wall.

Clary almost grinned as she wondered to herself what all the women who Simon brought back to his room would think when they saw that picture displayed right above his bed, but then she felt her grin quickly vanish as she remembered that she didn't want to think about Simon right now.

"So," Jace asked, closing the sketchbook and focusing on Clary again with another smirk, "why are there no beautiful redheads in your 'romantic' sketches?"

He finished his question with a wink. Clary shifted in her seat, suddenly feeling a little nervous, for some reason. She stared at Jace for a couple seconds with a confused frown. She could never tell if Jace was trying to be nice to her, or if he was just mocking her, especially when he winked at her like that.

Clary didn't really know how to answer Jace's question. She'd never really given it any thought before-she hadn't even realized that there were no women with red hair in any of her sketches-the women in her pictures were all blondes or brunettes, or they were drawn in black and white.

"I haven't found a good enough love story for a 'beautiful redhead' yet," she told Jace, giving him what she decided was the most honest answer, and somehow feeling a little sad as she finished her sentence. But then she quickly rolled her eyes at Jace, not wanting him to pick up on any sadness in her expression, not wanting him to ask her any more questions about it. She was relieved that he didn't say anything to mock her in response.

Somehow, Jace ended up telling her stories about his 'interesting' love life. He told her about how one time, his ex-girlfriend had poured a drink over his head on a Saturday night at Pandemonium, in full view of all of his buddies, who'd laughed at him for weeks after that night.

Clary couldn't help rolling her eyes at how predictable the story was. _Of course_ a guy like Jace would hang out at a club like Pandemonium, she thought to herself.

Then he told her another story about how a different ex-girlfriend had slapped him across the face in the middle of a classy coffee shop one evening, making a scene in front of all the other customers.

"Why am I not surprised?" Clary asked him as she folded her arms and shook her head. Although she couldn't help smiling a little, too; Jace's story was kind of funny.

She started to think that maybe Jace was making an effort to tell her funny stories in an attempt to make her feel better, like maybe he'd really thought that she was in a bad place after her reaction to Alec and Magnus's breakup, like one more depressing story might be too much for her to deal with right now. She didn't really know why he would be so concerned about her wellbeing though, why he would be making the effort to make her feel happier.

"Hey, that Book Club at the coffee shop considered itself to be pretty high-brow!" Jace replied to her in mock-offense as Clary continued to laugh at his misfortune. "My ex almost got me kicked out after that slap-"

"Book Club?" Clary interrupted him, raising an eyebrow in surprise. She'd never have pictured Jace as the 'Book Club' type. Unless 'book club' was some kind of metaphor for 'sex' or something, and in all her naivete she hadn't picked up on the innuendo.

A flicker of something that looked like uneasiness appeared in Jace's expression, almost like he'd said something he shouldn't have, like he'd said too much, but then the neutral expression was back on his face, along with a seemingly casual shrug.

"Let me guess," Clary quickly continued before Jace could say anything else, as a sudden realization formulated in her mind, "that Book Club just happened to be conveniently full of attractive, single women, right?"

"Something like that," Jace smirked at her, as Clary shook her head at him in mock disapproval.

"Again, not surprised," she told him, as Jace laughed, now looking a lot less uneasy.

"Anyway," Jace continued, "that's all in the past. I'm all grown up now, ready to be the perfect boyfriend-"

"Sure you are," Clary cut in sarcastically.

Jace simply laughed at her insult.

Clary would have laughed along with him, if she hadn't caught Magnus sighing sadly out the corner of her eye at the exact same time.

* * *

"Wow, you're really into this whole portmanteau thing with your favorite couples, huh?"

Clary glared at Jace.

He was back at her table at _The Half-Moon_ today, glancing through her sketchbook, just like last week, but this time he was actually sitting down on one of the spare seats, although he was perched right on the end of it, like he was ready to jump back up at any second if any new customers came in. Clary wasn't sure if he was sitting like that because he wasn't really interested in spending too much time with her, or because his boss was here today, looking over at Jace every couple of minutes with an irritated expression.

Of course, the fact that Jace had stumbled upon several additional black-and-white sketches of Magnus and Alec that Clary had been unable to resist drawing over the past few weeks (complete with the word 'Malec' written at the top of the page), depicting the progression of their relationship from Clary's point of view, meant that Clary was already feeling a little embarrassed and irritated.

"Whatever," she snapped at him.

She'd already attempted to explain her preference for black-and-white sketches to him today, saying something about hidden meanings and shades of grey, and she wasn't sure if she was ready for more raised eyebrows right now.

Still, she tried her best to explain to Jace about her fictional couples, and name combinations, and 'ship names', trying to tell him that this is what she'd always done with her favorite couples, ever since middle school.

Then, when Jace continued to stare at her with a pretty bewildered expression, she found herself reaching for her phone and using the Internet connection to access her account on the site that she always submitted her fan art to, in an attempt to explain her passion for fictional romance a little better.

A part of her felt like maybe she shouldn't do this, that maybe Jace had seen enough of her embarrassing secrets already-that he already had enough material to mock her with for years, and more than enough to share with his friends, if he wanted to talk about her strange behavior to anyone else. But, as she hesitantly handed her phone over to Jace, Clary told herself that it didn't matter if he saw her fan art now-if the sketches in her book and her over-investment in Alec and Magnus's relationship hadn't been enough to drive him away, then surely one more strange obsession wouldn't matter?

Besides, Clary missed having someone to share this site with-back at high school, she and Simon had logged into their account on the fan art page a couple of nights a week, and every single weekend, submitting the work that they'd come up with together and reading comments from other users, but since they'd started college, Simon had definitely lost a lot of interest in fan art.

Jace looked pretty confused as he swiped through picture after picture on Clary's page, looking at her portrayals of supernatural creatures, and various romantic pictures of her favorite couples from popular books, movies and TV shows, as well as the many comic strips that she and Simon had created (with Clary drawing the pictures and Simon coming up with the words to put into the speech bubbles), but he didn't say anything _too_ bad to mock her or to express his judgement or disapproval, apart from the occasional muttered, "Wow…"

The two of them were so absorbed in the pictures on Clary's phone screen that Clary didn't notice that Alec had arrived at the coffee shop at some point during her conversation with Jace.

It was only when she turned away from her phone screen for a moment that she caught sight of him and her eyes widened in surprise-she hadn't seen Alec at the _The Half-Moon_ for a while and she'd kind of been expecting to see Magnus instead.

Clary continued to stare over at Alec, unable to look away, even as Jace carried on looking at the pictures on display on her phone screen. If she'd been in any doubt as to whether Alec was as badly affected by the breakup as Magnus was, then all of her doubts would have quickly dissolved with one glance at Alec. He looked totally lost, confused, defeated. There were dark circles under his eyes, a weight-of-the-world expression on his face, and his hair looked a mess. Clary suddenly worked out that Magnus must have played some part in Alec's choice of clothes over the course of their relationship, because he looked a lot less stylish today, more like he'd looked weeks ago when he arrived for his first date with Magnus.

For a second, Clary was almost convinced that Jace was also looking over in Alec's direction with a similar concerned expression on his face, but then she looked directly at Jace and he was suddenly back to staring at her phone screen, and Clary told herself she'd only imagined it.

"They'll work things out," Jace suddenly muttered to her as he swiped through picture after picture on Clary's phone. "You know, 'Malec'-"

"You don't know that," Clary cut him off, quickly. Since she was a kid, Clary had always believed that false hope was way worse than no hope.

She felt a little bad this time about snapping at Jace, but Jace didn't seem to look offended. Instead, he returned to her fan art, mocking her a little for one of her pictures of a female vampire biting the neck of an attractive woman, asking her if these two women were 'madly in love, too', while Clary rolled her eyes at him, trying not to laugh.

Jace also pointedly ignored his boss, who kept walking right past Clary's table and passive-agressively tapping his watch.

Clary thought back to the summer jobs she'd had at Starbucks when she was a high school student, where she'd always tried so hard to make a good impression with her boss. Given the way that Jace rolled his eyes at his boss whenever he passed, Clary got the impression that _he_ really didn't give a damn about impressing authority figures. Clary kind of admired him for it.

They were suddenly distracted from the pictures on the screen when a message flashed up on Clary's phone. "It's from Simon," she said as she quickly took the phone back off Jace.

As Clary opened up Simon's latest message, in which he asked several times if Clary had listened to the song he'd sent her yet and what she thought about it, Jace seemed to be weirdly interested in whether or not Simon was her boyfriend.

Clary quickly shook her head at Jace's is-Simon-your-boyfriend question. She'd never really thought about Simon like that. They'd kissed, once, back at high school, but that had been more out of curiosity on Clary's part, to know what an actual kiss felt like, and also a wish to actually experience a first kiss in the first place, like most of her fellow high school students seemed to have done already.

However, Clary just hadn't _felt_ anything when they kissed, hadn't felt that 'spark' that characters in books and movies always talked about. And, judging by the way Simon had been staring back at her with his eyes wide open the second Clary opened her eyes, she'd worked out that Simon felt exactly the same.

After that, they'd just carried on being platonic best friends, sometimes even laughing together about their disastrous kiss. Still, Clary knew that she wanted Simon to be a part of her life for the rest of her life-he was closer to her than a brother, the best friend she'd ever had. She missed him so much, even though she was still mad at him. She could only hope that things between them hadn't been damaged beyond repair.

After she'd explained to Jace that Simon was her platonic best friend, not going into too much detail, Jace then seemed to take an even weirder interest in the song that Simon was asking Clary about in his message.

In the end, the two of them ended up sharing Clary's headphones so they could listen to _War of Hearts_.

Clary suddenly realized that it felt a little weird to be sitting at a table at a coffee shop with a guy who wasn't Simon, listening to music together and sharing headphones. She felt a little out of her depth.

Jace actually seemed to be _really_ listening to the song, too; he pressed his hand up to his ear, like he was trying to drown out any other noise, and his lips moved along with the beat, like he was trying to memorize every single note of the music or something, even though Clary didn't get why he would be doing that.

"You know what would sound even better?" he suddenly asked her as the last notes finished. "The acoustic version…."

Clary stared at him in surprise for a couple moments. _She_ liked the acoustic version better, but she almost couldn't believe that Jace had reached the same conclusion about the song.

So, they ended up finding the acoustic version of _War of Hearts_ and listening to that together, too, with Jace looking lost in the music again.

As they listened, Clary couldn't help thinking again about how close she was sitting to Jace. Up close, his blond hair looked soft, silky, and she could see every splash of gold in his eyes, could see the details of the tattoos on his arms.

For the first time, she wondered what it would be like to sketch a picture of Jace; she wondered what her interpretation of him would look like on canvas…but then Clary blinked quickly, snapping back into reality as though coming out of a trance. As she fought off the urge to blush, she told herself that she shouldn't be thinking about stuff like that.

"This is perfect," Jace told her about the song. "Can I have it?"

Clary frowned at him in confusion, wondering what he would even want _War of Hearts_ for, but she simply shrugged and said, "It isn't mine to give away…"

She almost felt a little guilty for being off-hand with Jace again, but they were both distracted from their conversation when Jace's boss yelled, "Jace!" from right across the room, apparently giving up on passive-aggressive gestures now and resorting to all-out yelling to make Jace get back to work.

Jace shouted a couple rude words back at his boss, but he stood up with a sigh and headed back over to the counter to work.

Clary gave him a sympathetic smile and started to put her phone and headphones back in her backpack, deciding that she was done for the day now and planning to head back to her dorm to chill out a little tonight before she had to work on an assignment tomorrow, maybe watch a movie.

As she left, Clary walked past Alec, who was still sitting at his table, looking upset.

She couldn't help noticing (not that she was looking or anything) that Alec was looking at a photo of himself and Magnus with their arms around each other that he seemed to have saved on his phone.

Clary sighed as she took a few steps closer to the door.

But then, without even thinking about what she was doing, Clary stopped in her tracks, turned back around and walked determinedly over to Alec's table, hearing the echo of the heels of the boots that she'd borrowed from her mom on the coffee shop floor as she took every step.

"He loves you," she told Alec firmly the moment she stopped at his table. She knew that she shouldn't be doing this, that this was going way too far-she'd now ventured into the 'meddling' territory that her dad and Simon always criticised her for.

Besides, she'd also stepped over some kind of invisible line when it came to Magnus and Alec's relationship: up until now, she'd always been the distant observer, appreciating the beauty of their romance from afar. Right now, she was getting involved in it, trying to influence its outcome.

But it didn't even matter anymore, beccause she had to do _something_.

Alec mustn't have seen Clary approach, because he jumped at her words and then looked up at her, blinking a few times in apparent shock, before he regarded her with a pretty terrified-looking expression.

"Huh?" he asked her as Clary folded her arms and tried to put on her best authoritative expression, as though she actually knew what the hell she was doing.

"Magnus," Clary insisted, realizing that she didn't even know Magnus's last name. Or Alec's. "He loves you."

Now, Alec was regarding her with what looked like suspicion. "Did he send you here to say this?" he asked Clary with a frown.

"What? No," Clary responded with a frown of her own.

"Oh, okay, so my brother sent you-"

"What? I don't even know your brother!" Clary snapped, irritably. This conversation wasn't going the way she'd planned. She couldn't help wondering if Alec's mysterious brother often had women around him to do favors for him, because Alec didn't seem surprised at the possibility that Clary was here on his brother's behalf.

Alec seemed to frown in confusion for a moment at Clary's answer, but Clary quickly continued, wanting to get all of her words out. She didn't have time to think about anything else right now. "Magnus loves you. He sits here every single week looking totally devastated about your breakup-"

"He does?" Alec looked up at Clary now with an expression of concern on his face. He looked really upset by this revelation, almost like he might cry, and Clary was convinced all over again of his love for Magnus.

"He does," Clary confirmed with a serious expression, keeping her arms folded. "So you two need to sit down together and talk, work it all out. Whatever it is, I'm sure you can both deal with it. Do you know how lucky you guys are to have found each other? Do you know how difficult it is to find a love like yours?"

Clary felt a little upset herself as she finished her sentence, like she was missing something that she'd never even had. But then Alec gave her another concerned look, his eyebrows raised and a frown on his face, and she was reminded that she probably sounded crazy to Alec.

Feeling a little embarrassed, Clary told Alec that she had to go now, reminding him one more time that he needed to talk to Magnus.

It was only as she turned around that she noticed Jace, standing at the back of the coffee shop and staring at her with his eyes wide, an expression of total disbelief on his face at what she'd just done.

"Whatever, Jace!" Clary yelled at him as she stormed out of the coffee shop, not even caring right now about how ridiculous she must sound.

* * *

Clary hadn't planned to head to _The Half-Moon_ on a Thursday night (she wasn't even sure if she planned on heading there ever again after her outburst last time), but less than a week after her last visit, she'd found herself craving a little fresh air after staying late at the art studio to finish a little college work. She'd been walking the streets of Brooklyn that were near to the coffee shop for a while, so after starting to get a little cold, she'd headed inside.

As she stepped through the main door to the coffee shop, Clary instantly noticed that the atmosphere was different here this evening than it typically was on a Friday afternoon-the place was less crowded, with a few couples walking around or sitting casually at the tables; the lights were dimmed, with the room mainly lit by the flickering glow of the candles on the table-Clary realized that the 'flame' glowing from each candle was only an artificial light, but the light still looked beautiful. The dimmed lights in the room also seemed to highlight the paintings and photos on the walls of the city skyline at night, making the place look softer, more romantic.

But more importantly, Clary could hear the most beautiful piece of music being played that she'd ever heard in her life.

She listened to the music carefully as she took a few steps towards her table, almost wishing that she'd visited this place of an evening before now.

She suddenly realized that the song being played sounded just like the song that Simon had sent her- _War of Hearts_. She also realized that the music sounded too beautiful, too clear and sharp to simply be a recording, or to be part of a pre-prepared playlist to be played at the coffee shop tonight. The music sounded like it was coming from…

Clary's eyes flickered slowly and hesitantly in the direction of the piano in the corner of the room, almost not daring to hope…

And yet it was true; there was actually a man sitting at the piano, playing those notes so beautifully, playing, by some weird coincidence, the song that Clary had recently grown to love, with his fingers moving over the keys like an expert, as though he had been playing for decades.

But on second glance, Clary realized that the man sitting at the piano was not some elderly man with years of experience. The man was only young, with blond hair that seemed to shimmer like silk in the artificial candlelight…

With a gasp of surprise, the realization hit Clary that it was _Jace_ who was sitting at the piano. She hadn't even known, would never have even guessed that he could play the piano, let alone play so beautifully like that.

So this is why he'd asked if he could 'have' _War of Hearts..._ why he'd seemed so fascinated by the song. Apparently, Jace was full of surprises.

Clary stood still and watched as though mesmerized, still not able to get over her shock at seeing Jace play. She knew that this couldn't just be some casual hobby for Jace; to play like that, it must have taken _years_ of practice. She saw a fleeting image in her head of Jace as a young boy, learning all the notes and sitting at a piano with his legs barely touching the floor, and she felt weirdly emotional.

As a couple of customers started to give her strange glances, Clary had to blink herself out of her almost trance-like state.

She forced herself to walk towards her usual table and take a seat. As she sat down slowly however, she was greeted by another surprise. Magnus and Alec were sitting opposite each other at the table by the window.

Clary almost had to pinch herself, just to check that what she was seeing was actually real. It seemed like so long since the two of them had sat at that table together that she was almost convinced she was dreaming.

Magnus and Alec were both sitting with their arms folded, their body language awkward, stubborn almost. They kept glancing quickly at each other then looking away just as rapidly, or out the window, both of them looking nervous, uncertain, awkward, or like they were in some kind of weird standoff.

Clary had a sneaking suspicion that this meeting at _The Half-Moon_ tonight hadn't exactly been planned, like maybe some kind of outside force had conspired to bring them both here, or perhaps more realistically, someone they both knew had arranged for them to be here tonight in an attempt to get them to work things out.

Clary watched them intently, now almost distracted from her shock that Jace was playing the piano. _Please_ , she willed them silently, trying to send all her positive energy in their direction. _Please_ _just talk_ …

Finally, Alec was the first one to crack. "Magnus, I'm sorry," he muttered. His words sounded nervous, but his expression looked determined.

Magnus sighed in return, but then his expression seemed to soften, and he looked at Alec, giving him his full attention.

"Since our brea-uh, since our fight," Alec quickly continued, looking like he didn't want to stop now that he had got started, "I can't think straight."

Magnus seemed to fight off a smile for a moment, but then his expression got serious as he responded, "Well, _I_ can't do anything without…thinking of you…"

This time it was Alec's turn to smile a little as Magnus quickly looked out the window again, looking embarrassed at his admission.

Then Alec looked serious again. "With everything that's been going on with my mom, with work, with being in my first relationship…I didn't know how to deal with it all, and I know I took it out on you-"

"I made you feel like you had to choose between spending time with me and taking care of your family...and I never wanted you to feel that way…" Magnus quickly jumped into the conversation, an upset, guilty look on his face.

"I should have been more honest with you," Alec shrugged, looking relieved that he was getting all this off his chest.

" _I_ should have been more understanding with you," Magnus insisted.

"I should have talked to you more about what was going on…"

"I shouldn't have brought all my insecurities from the bad relationships of my past to _this_ relationship…"

Clary had barely moved, had barely even taken a deep breath since the start of this conversation. She sat watching them in total silence, thinking about how perfect it was that _War of Hearts_ was being played on the piano right now, how fitting the song was for Magnus and Alec, and hoping more than anything that things were going to be okay…

Clary couldn't hear the next part of their conversation (although she was pretty sure that they were saying something about how much they'd missed each other), as it was drowned out by the final notes of the song and a round of scattered applause coming from the customers standing close to the piano, but it didn't matter, because next minute, Magnus was up out of his seat and walking slowly towards Alec.

Alec also stood up as Magnus approached him, both of them looking nervous as they moved even closer towards one another.

"Last week," Alec mumbled, "someone convinced me that what we have is worth fighting for…and it's true; and Magnus, I love you…"

Magnus made the first move this time, running his hand slowly over Alec's arm, then over his cheek, before he brushed a stray strand of hair out of Alec's eyes. Finally, he leaned forward slightly so that he could brush his lips slowly against Alec's, his movements a little hesitant, apparently still unsure.

Alec seemed reluctant for this hesitant kiss to end, and the second Magnus pulled away, he pulled him back in, kissing him more passionately this time, before they both hugged each other tightly, like they never wanted to let each other go ever again.

"I'm not good at apologies," Alec whispered in Magnus's ear, sounding apologetic again.

"You're amazing at apologies, Alexander," Magnus reassured him.

Clary could tell by the way that the two of them leaned on each other's shoulders just how relieved they were to be back in each other's arms.

Clary had to stop herself from starting her own loud round of applause as the two men embraced. Instead, she smiled to herself, placing her hands over her heart, feeling so happy that Magnus and Alec were happy again, and, more than anything, feeling an overwhelming sense of relief of her own.

She had just looked over at their table to smile at them again when-

"Yo! Alec!"

Clary jumped, startled out of her thoughts by someone yelling.

She rolled her eyes- _who the hell talked like that?!_

 _Probably the kind of person who uses words like 'bro'_...she then thought to herself with a sigh. But then, Clary saw for herself _exactly_ who talked like that, because next minute, _Jace_ of all people was running right over to Alec with a grin on his face.

Clary sat still and watched as Alec rolled his eyes but then grinned at Jace, like he knew him, like he knew him pretty well; then she watched as Jace pulled Alec in for a hug. She frowned, wondering what was going on.

Jace might not have seemed like much of a hugger over the time that Clary had got to know him, but apparently he was making an exception for Alec, because he let Alec wrap his arms right around him, let Alec lean on his shoulder. Alec even closed his eyes as he leaned into Jace, looking young, vulnerable, now, almost like he was seeking support and protection from Jace, even though Clary didn't understand why….

"Alec, I'm so proud of you," Clary heard Jace whisper.

 _What the hell is happening?_ she wondered.

"Congratulations, guys," Jace said even louder with a smirk as he and Alec stepped away from each other and he looked from Alec to Magnus.

As Clary continued to watch, feeling confused, still relatively hidden from view on her side of the room, Jace walked over to Magnus and threw an arm affectionately over his shoulder as Magnus smiled back at him.

"Thank you," Magnus told Jace, sounding pleasant, sincere, like he too was on friendly terms with Jace.

Clary still couldn't process the scene that was playing out in front of her.

"Jace," Alec told him, sounding really proud, "that song was beautiful-"

"Well, I can't take all the credit," Jace shrugged, looking embarrassed and uncomfortable at the compliment, "I kind of borrowed it-"

"Jace, come on," Alec interrupted him, like he was used to Jace talking like this, "it was still beautiful. I know how nervous you get, playing in public-"

Clary still stared at them all with a frown. _How_ did Alec know that? She'd never even seen Jace stand close to Magnus and Alec's table, and now they were all talking like this…

Jace rolled his eyes, and it looked like there was a sarcastic comeback right on the tip of his tongue, but he seemed to stop himself at the last second, almost like he'd suddenly remembered that it was Alec who was talking to him, like he knew that he shouldn't upset him or something, or like he needed to be more sensitive around Alec.

"Well," Jace shrugged, before he smirked at Alec and playfully ruffled his hair, "it's not every day that my brother gets back together with the love of his life…"

As he finished his sentence, Alec blushed bright red.

Magnus also looked a little embarrassed, but still he rolled his eyes affectionately at Jace.

Clary was just thinking about how adorable it was that Alec wasn't doing anything to deny this statement that Magnus was the love of his life… but suddenly, she went over in her mind what Jace had just said and she gasped as she was hit with a rapid jolt of realization. She was abruptly reminded of the wave in her sketch, about to crash to shore.

 _Jace is Alec's brother…_

The words seemed to hit her like the wave now as her eyes widened slowly in shock.

She heard the words again in her head, over and over, as the truth seemed to flow all around her, as everything pieced together in her mind…

 _Jace is Alec's brother!_


	6. Chapter 6

Clary continued to stare at Magnus, Alec and Jace, almost feeling like she was frozen to the spot in her shock.

She was vaguely aware of the fact that she'd placed some of her stuff on her table at some point during Magnus and Alec's reunion-a couple books and her sketchbook, but she knew that there was no way she'd be able to focus on books or sketching this evening, not after what she'd just heard…

 _Jace is Alec's brother!_

The realization continued to play over and over in her head as she watched Jace share a few more jokes with Magnus and Alec, still oblivious to her presence at _The Half-Moon_.

 _Jace is Alec's brother!_

How was it even possible? The two of them looked nothing alike, and their personalities were so different-Jace with his confident smiles and his gentle mockery, and his flirting with every attractive woman at the coffee shop, and Alec with his awkward gestures and his serious comments and his uncertainty when it came to relationships.

Even their body language and their facial expressions were so different, weren't they?

But then, as her heart started to beat a little faster, Clary couldn't help thinking about the few facial expressions that the two of them had in common, from what she'd seen of them, anyway: the weight-of-the-world expression, in particular, and a few words and phrases that they both seemed to use.

As Jace grabbed hold of Alec for another hug, actually closing _his_ eyes this time, like he was leaning on Alec for support now, the way that Alec had just done with him, a few other realizations started to click uncomfortably into place in Clary's mind…

The comment that Alec had made about his brother encouraging him to date Magnus in the first place, with all the stuff his brother had said sounding just like Jace. It had probably been pretty convenient, that Alec could go on his first date ever at a place where his caring, protective brother worked.

The times that Jace had seemed a little protective of Alec and Magnus when he'd been looking from the two of them and then back to Clary and her sketchbook, with his concern that Clary just thought of them as two hot guys.

The way that Jace had also looked pretty upset over the breakup; the way he'd seemed to be staring over at Alec with a concerned expression on his face the last time Clary had been here, when Alec had been sitting alone and looking upset.

The time that Magnus had asked Alec how his mom was doing, with Alec looking worried, followed by the time that Jace had told Clary about how _his_ mom was devastated by his dad's affair. They had the _same_ mother!

Now, all the stuff that Clary had previously overlooked or dismissed was starting to make a horrifying kind of sense. Had the brotherly relationship (or even the fact that the two of them knew each other) been obvious this whole time, and she'd simply missed it? Had she been too absorbed in her sketches and her obsession with Magnus and Alec's love story to notice all the other stuff that was going on around her? She felt like such an idiot.

And to make everything seem ten times worse, this whole time, Clary had been showing up at _The Half-Moon_ to watch Alec and Magnus's dates, looking over at them with smiles and gasps and hands over her heart while Jace, Alec's _brother_ , looked on. She'd sketched pictures of them in full view of Jace, writing 'Malec' at the top of the pages and drawing red hearts above the pictures. She'd broken down in tears after they broke up. She'd told Alec that Magnus still loved him, desperately trying to get them back together while Jace had watched her, looking shocked. And this whole time, _Jace_ had been Alec's brother; Jace hadn't even bothered to tell her this very important fact; Jace had stood by and watched and laughed and smirked as she obsessed over 'Malec's' relationship, letting her draw sketch after sketch of them, knowing that it was his _brother_ and his boyfriend who she was obsessing over.

What if Jace left with Magnus and Alec at the end of every shift, mocking Clary's behavior? What if the three of them secretly shared jokes and laughs at her expense? Oh god, she had to get out of here!

Hastily grabbing everything within her reach on the table and stuffing it back into her backpack without even looking at what she was doing, Clary jumped up out of her seat as fast as she could, while still trying to remain discreet and unnoticed.

Of course, she just happened to swing her backpack over her shoulder at precisely the wrong moment, causing the bag to crash into the artificial candle on the table. The candle, which just happened to be made of glass, fell off the table, with the glass shattering as it hit the floor.

 _Dammit!_ Clary thought as she desperately tried not to panic.

The sound of breaking glass attracted Jace's attention; still hugging Alec, he jumped a little, opened his eyes and then looked right over at Clary, an expression of surprise that she was here tonight registering on his face.

"Clary," he said as he blinked a couple times.

Both Alec and Magnus seemed to stare from Clary to Jace with looks of confusion for a moment, but then a look of understanding seemed to cross both of their faces, and they nodded discreetly to each other, as though they were having some sort of silent conversation. Their reaction only served to confirm Clary's suspicions that they'd heard her name before, that Jace had mentioned her to them, and that he probably laughed at her with them.

It took a few moments for Jace to get over his obvious shock at Clary's presence tonight at the coffee shop, and he looked almost guiltily from Magnus and Alec to Clary, while Clary remained rooted to the spot, still unable to move just yet.

But then, Jace started to smirk a little, almost like this situation was suddenly hilarious to him and like he was about to mock her for it, which was enough to force Clary into action.

"You're unbelievable!" Clary managed to shout sarcastically in Jace's direction, hoping that her disapproval was obvious in her tone of voice, the way it had been obvious in Jace's tone of voice every time he walked past her with a muttered, "Wow...".

With a glare at Jace and a disgusted shake of her head, she turned on her heel and stormed out of the coffee shop, trying not to feel too guilty for leaving broken glass all over the floor by her table and ignoring Jace's yell of, "Clary!"

Just before she left, she heard Jace's boss yell, "Not this again, Jace!", followed by an exasperated-sounding sigh, which only served to increase Clary's anger as she wondered how many other women had also been in here yelling at Jace since Jace started working at the coffee shop.

She'd just managed to get out the door-making sure to slam it extra hard behind her-and she took a few steps out into the cold night air when-

"Clary! Wait!"

Apparently, Jace had followed her outside. He sounded more serious now, more apologetic, but right now, Clary didn't care.

Without even thinking about what she was doing, Clary span around rapidly to face him. "You're a jerk, you know that!" she started yelling at him before he could say anything else.

Jace looked a little shocked at her outburst, and the anger in her voice even surprised Clary herself. Maybe she _was_ overreacting a little; maybe this level of anger wasn't really necessary for a situation like this, but if she thought about it honestly, Clary knew that what she was _really_ reacting to was her sense of humiliation over the whole situation; the feeling of embarrassment for not working all this out; the fact that she'd let Jace into this private little world of hers only to find out that he'd been so much _more_ than the casual outside observer that she'd been all along.

Maybe if she looked a little deeper, Clary would also have to admit that she was upset over the apparent confirmation of her long-held suspicion that Jace had only ever talked to her because he was mocking her for her interest in his brother's love life; lately, she'd allowed herself to consider the possibility that _maybe_ Jace was actually interested in her life and her artwork...but obviously not, given what she'd just found out. All this mixed in with the stress of everything else that had been going on in her life lately, and it made for a pretty toxic combination.

"This whole time!" she continued to yell at Jace before he could say anything to stop her. "You're his _brother_ , and you didn't even say anything!"

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Alec was looking through the glass window with an expression of concern. He took a few steps towards the door, like he was going to head outside to check that Jace was okay, but Jace held up a hand to tell him to stay where he was. The gesture was somehow both gentle and firm; it was so _brotherly_ that Clary felt yet another rush of irritation.

 _So_ now _the two of you want to make it obvious that you're brothers?!_ she desperately wanted to scream at Jace.

Instead, she settled on yelling, "I _really_ don't want to talk to you right now, Jace!", ignoring Jace's pleas of, "Clary, come on…".

"I have to go!" she yelled over him, turning around and walking away from him, her heart still beating fast.

* * *

Clary walked through the darkened streets of Brooklyn back to her dorm as though in slow motion-it felt like everyone was rushing past her, like various lights from buildings and cars were flickering rapidly, turning all of her surroundings into nothing more than a blur, but still she walked slowly, separate from the crowds, her eyes feeling tired and her legs feeling heavy.

When she finally arrived back at her room, Clary kicked off her shoes with a little more force than necessary, causing them to make a loud noise as they crashed into the nearest wall, and then she threw herself down on her bed with a heavy sigh, sprawling out over the covers.

She wasn't sure how long she stayed like that, lost in thought.

She thought about how she'd pretty much turned Magnus and Alec into one of the fictional couples from her favorite books over the past few weeks, getting lost in the beauty of their romance, getting lost in the fantasy of it. She silently debated with herself over whether this had been a bad idea, if she should have kept more of a distance, if she should have stopped herself from getting too attached to the relationship and its outcome.

Yet while 'Malec' had almost been a relationship fantasy to her, a dream of a perfect romance, their lives and their relationship were a _reality_ to Jace. She wondered if Jace thought that she was an idiot, or if he thought that she was immature, or naïve; she wondered if he really did laugh about her interest in Magnus and Alec's relationship every night when he was at home, especially when he was experiencing the reality of the same relationship on a day to day basis…but then she tried to tell herself firmly that she didn't care what Jace thought about her.

As Clary went over and over in her mind everything that had happened over the past few weeks, feeling embarrassed all over again, the not-so-pleasant thought suddenly came into her head that it wasn't just Magnus and Alec who had acted as her secret motivation to return to _The Half-Moon_ so often; as much as she loved their relationship, right here, in the dark, a nagging voice in the back of her mind was asking her if she'd maybe been going back to the coffee shop so much to see _Jace_ , as well as 'Malec'. She hated herself for allowing herself to think about this, even in her deepest, darkest thoughts.

Eventually, Clary started to drift off to sleep. Yet, not long after she'd fallen into a fitful sleep, she suddenly gasped in panic and her eyes jerked open, only just remembering something. She sat up in bed and reached for her backpack.

After searching her backpack hopelessly for a few minutes, Clary realized with a flicker of both panic and sadness that in her rush to get out, she must have forgotten to pick up her sketchbook from her table at _The Half-Moon_ tonight…

* * *

The next morning, Clary headed back to _The Half-Moon_ wearing her large pink hoodie that she usually only wore when she was indoors, hanging around her dorm watching movies or studying for assignments. She knew that the hoodie probably looked like it had seen better days, and the color probably clashed with her hair, but right now, she didn't care. All she cared about was finding her sketchbook and getting back out of the coffee shop as fast as possible before she was seen by anyone. Or, more accurately, before she was seen by one person in particular.

She kept her hood up as she headed through the main door, only taking it down when she was certain that Jace wasn't here working yet. She'd convinced herself anyway that Jace probably wouldn't be here, as he usually worked later in the day on Fridays, but still, she couldn't help feeling a little relieved that he wasn't walking around the place with a smirk on his face.

Her relief soon turned to anxiety however after she spoke to a couple of baristas and then searched the tables frantically only to come up with nothing in the search for her sketchbook.

She was distracted from her search when the door opened and Magnus and Alec walked in. The two of them walked towards the counter with their arms around each other. Alec was wearing a smart suit, like he was about to head to work, whatever his job might be.

With a gasp, Clary hurriedly pulled her hood back up and hid herself away at a table in the far corner of the room with her back to them.

She was happy for Magnus and Alec that they were back together, but her desire to celebrate on their behalf had kind of been tainted by everything that had happened last night, and she _really_ didn't feel ready to face them just yet.

Even though she was sitting with her back to them, Clary could still pick up on parts of Magnus and Alec's conversation. Magnus was ordering coffee in takeaway cups for the two of them, insisting that he was going to pay for both of their drinks, and Alec was complaining about having to go to work, making it clear that he'd rather spend the time with Magnus. With a few discreet glances over her shoulder, Clary saw Magnus run a hand soothingly up and down Alec's back, whispering a few words in Alec's ear as Alec nodded, suddenly seeming to relax a little.

"We're still meeting here for coffee tonight, right?" Alec asked his boyfriend with a hint of a frown, apparently deciding that if he _had_ to go to work, then he was at least going to make sure he saw Magnus _after_ work.

"I'll be right here, waiting for you," Magnus promised him with a bright smile, looking happier than Clary had seen him look for weeks.

In other circumstances, Clary would have found this little exchange between them adorable, especially as Alec leaned over a couple times to kiss Magnus on the lips between sips of his coffee, but right now, she was a little too worried about the fact that she might never see her sketchbook again.

After she was sure that Magnus and Alec had left, Clary got up from her seat at the table and searched the coffee shop again for any signs of her missing sketchbook.

Eventually, she had to admit defeat. With a sigh, Clary headed towards the door, vowing that she would return again soon, ask a few more members of staff and regular customers if they'd seen the book, maybe put up a poster about it or something.

She knew that she had to find the book somehow. Already, she felt like she'd lost a part of herself.

Clary had just headed out the door and taken a few steps away from the coffee shop when-

"Are you forgetting something?"

Clary stopped in her tracks, feeling her heart start to beat faster at the sound of that voice. She wasn't sure whether her increased heart rate was due to irritation or nerves.

As though in slow motion, Clary turned around to face Jace, who was leaning against the wall outside the coffee shop, holding Clary's sketchbook almost protectively in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other.

Clary felt another flicker of irritation. _Of course_ he had to be working here this morning. Of course he had to notice her in spite of all her efforts to remain hidden.

Of all the days for Jace to start work early…

She fought off the weird urge to blush, suddenly feeling very aware of the fact that she looked a mess right now in her over-sized pink hoodie, with her messy hair and dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep. Not that it mattered how she looked to Jace. He probably already thought that her _personality_ was strange enough.

"Whatever," Clary responded automatically, resorting to what she knew was her typical lame comeback before she looked down at the floor, feeling embarrassed.

When she briefly looked up from the floor, she noticed that Jace was smirking, like he was amused by her comeback, the way he always was, or just amused by her behavior in general after last night, maybe, but Clary could also detect a flicker of uncertainty, or maybe even fear in his eyes, hidden behind the appearance of confidence and amusement. She wondered if he was nervous that she was going to start yelling at him all over again.

Clary was just debating giving up on the sketchbook altogether and running away from Jace, away from this embarrassing situation, when Jace suddenly took a step closer to her.

"Look," he said with a sigh, looking like he wasn't totally comfortable with whatever it was he was about to say, "I'm…I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to upset you. When my brother first agreed to a date with Magnus here, I tried to stay out of his way, watch over things from a distance…he made me promise not to get involved or embarrass him too much or say anything to ruin his dates. It worked out pretty well, I guess, that I was there to keep an eye on things for him, but I knew it'd make him uncomfortable if I hung around his table too much, looking like an over-protective sibling. I never really made it obvious to anyone in there that we were brothers. And then you showed up…"

Clary eventually looked him in the eye, trying hard to keep her expression unreadable. She noted that Jace looked embarrassed, too, and she guessed that he wasn't exactly an expert at the whole heartfelt apology thing.

"You could have just said something…" Clary mumbled as she glared at him, still feeling angry.

"If I'd told you from the start he was my brother, you wouldn't have come back to the coffee shop," Jace told her with a serious expression, as though this was a totally reasonable explanation.

Clary rolled her eyes at him. "So?" she asked Jace with a frown. What did _he_ care if she never came back?

"I liked you being there," Jace shrugged, looking a little uncomfortable again. "You made me laugh… _at_ you, not with you, of course."

As his words, Clary let out a loud, exaggerated sigh before she turned and started to walk away.

"Clary, come on!" he sighed, sounding exasperated.

Clary stopped and turned around with another sigh, facing him again.

"Look," he mumbled, now looking like he was making an effort to be more tactful, more sensitive, "when I first saw you, watching their dates, sketching them, reading all your books about ghosts or werewolves or vampires or whatever, I don't know, you just seemed so… _happy_ , in this weird little fantasy world of yours, and I didn't want to burst that bubble for you. I knew that if I did, you wouldn't have come back, and you wouldn't have ever shown me your..."interesting" sketches…"

Clary continued to frown at him.

"Don't get me wrong, the whole 'Malec' thing _was_ pretty funny," he smirked, but the smirk was quickly wiped off his face when Clary glared at him again, "but I found it kind of fascinating, too, your weird obsession with all these couples, with love, romance, whatever it is. Even last night, when Alec got back together with Magnus, the first thing I thought about was how happy _you'd_ be the next day when you walked through the door and saw that they were together again…"

Clary saw that Jace looked a little flushed as he finished his sentence, although she didn't get what he'd said that would be so embarrassing for him. Clary guessed that a part of him _really_ didn't want to be saying any of this stuff out loud for some reason.

He suddenly sighed, his body language awkward as he muttered, "I'm not good at apologies…"

His words and his actions reminded Clary of Alec, and she felt a rush of embarrassment, a flicker of shame, all over again.

"I figured that in the end you'd just work it all out, and by then it wouldn't be such a big deal, that maybe we could all just laugh about it at some point or something…"

"I have to go," Clary suddenly told him before he could say anything else, really feeling like she had to get away from here right now, away from all the confusing feelings in her head and her heart, and away from Jace, who was looking a little too much like Alec right now with his awkward body language.

Jace sighed, looking defeated. "Don't forget your sketchbook," he told her, his tone of voice sounding urgent, like it was actually important to him that Clary didn't lose the book again.

Back at high school, guys like Jace would have probably turned the whole sketchbook thing into some kind of annoying game, realizing that they had something she wanted and therefore refusing to give it back, maybe even holding it above her head just to annoy her, but Jace didn't do any of that stuff. Instead, he handed the book back to her, his movements slow, nervous almost, like he was afraid that Clary would drop it or something.

"And, uh…take this cup of coffee, too," he insisted, holding out his other hand to give Clary a takeout cup that looked similar to the cups that Magnus and Alec had just been drinking out of before. "I made if for you while you were attempting to sneak around the coffee shop a couple minutes ago…"

Jace's usual hint of a mocking smirk was back on his face as he finished his sentence.

Clary desperately tried to fight off another flush of embarrassment at his words, at the realization that he'd been there the whole time she was inside the coffee shop. Clearly, he was much more subtle, and way better at hiding, than she was.

She must have looked like such an idiot, sneaking in with her hood up and hiding away at that table in the corner of the room, thinking that nobody could see her, when Jace had probably been watching her and laughing at her the whole time.

"Whatever," Clary responded as she glared at him, trying not to let her embarrassment show. But still, she took the coffee cup out of his hand. She could use a cup of coffee right now.

Unable to come up with anything else to say, Clary simply nodded and turned away from him.

She walked away from _The Half-Moon_ , heading in the direction of her dorm, still feeling a little sad but also allowing herself to feel a sense of relief at having her sketchbook back.

When she felt like she'd got far enough away, she lifted the lid off her takeout cup so she could take a couple sips of coffee. The second she fully removed the lid, Clary noticed that Jace had spelled out the word ' _Sorry_ ' with chocolate powder at the top of her cappuccino.

Clary rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help feeling a little calmer as she started drinking the coffee, like her anger was melting away a little with every sip.

* * *

When she arrived back at her dorm, her sketchbook still held protectively in her arms, Clary was met by the surprising (and alarming) sight of Simon, sitting on her bed, his eyes bright red and his face streaked with tears, as though he'd just spent the past few hours crying.

"Clary, I'm so sorry," he mumbled the second Clary closed her bedroom door, taking a few deep breaths like he was about to start crying all over again. He ducked his head, looking ashamed.

Clary stared at Simon in confusion for a few seconds, still not over her shock that he was actually here, in her room. She'd given Simon a spare key to her room back at the start of the semester, so it wasn't like she was surprised that he'd got in, it was just that it seemed like so long since he'd last been here, so long since they'd last hung out.

As she took in Simon's tearful expression, Clary felt a strong instinct to just run over to the bed, throw her arms around him and hug him, to try and offer comfort and support, the way she always did. But she stopped herself. She was still _mad_ at Simon; he'd put a distance between them since the start of college, he'd hurt her feelings, and she needed to hear him out before she went rushing over to make him feel better.

"Sorry for what?" she asked him as she placed her sketchbook and her half-full coffee cup on her table and folded her arms, trying to look and sound firm, and hoping that he couldn't hear the tremble in her voice.

Simon sighed a deep, heavy sigh before he started babbling. "Clary, I know I haven't been here for you lately…I just...I got a little caught up in this whole dating thing. You remember what it was like, back at high school-girls never even looked at me. Then, we were here, at college, and suddenly, all these women were asking me out on dates, they were interested in _me_ , for the first time ever. And I guess I got a little carried away with it, I started taking all the other important stuff in my life for granted. But, this past couple weeks, I kind of realized that I was turning into all the jocks I hated back at high school, all the guys I never wanted to be...You were right, about how it was wrong to sneak around with two girlfriends at once. And I know I've been a bad friend, and I've really missed you, Clary, and I'm so, so sorry…"

Simon was unable to continue speaking, because he was cut off by his own sobs.

He looked so heartbroken, and Clary had a sneaking suspicion that things had gone pretty badly with his latest relationships, like maybe someone had called him out on his behavior, like he'd been forced to learn a few harsh lessons about relationships. But Clary felt like all of that wasn't a priority just yet. They could talk about it all later.

Without any words, Clary removed her shoes and walked determinedly over to Simon. As soon as she got close to him, she sat down next to him on the bed and wrapped her arms around him. She wasn't sure if she was fully done with being mad at him yet, but right now, that didn't matter, because Simon was her best friend, and he was upset, and he needed her, and she'd missed him so much, too.

Simon continued to sob on her shoulder for a little while, and Clary also leaned on _his_ shoulder, closing her eyes and feeling strangely comforted herself, just by Simon's presence in her room again. He reminded her of home, of family.

When he was all cried out, Simon removed his shoes and glasses, and the two of them lay down on Clary's bed, with their arms still around one another.

As Clary pulled the covers over the two of them, she thought about how other people might think that it was a little weird, that she was effectively cuddling with her best male friend in her bed. But this is what the two of them had always done, ever since they were little kids and they'd had sleepovers at each other's apartments. The cuddling had always been normal for them; it was a source of comfort, the same kind of comfort that Clary might have sought from a sibling, if she hadn't been an only child.

Eventually, the two of them started to fall asleep. Now that she had a little time to think, Clary realized just how exhausted she was by everything that had happened in her life recently.

* * *

What felt like hours later, the two of them woke up from their nap at the same time, almost in perfect sync with one another, and Clary actually felt well-rested, and a little lighter, a little happier, like some of the weight had now been lifted off her shoulders. She even shared a laugh with Simon as they both realized that they'd pretty much slept through the day.

As he got ready to leave her room and head out to an early-evening rehearsal with his band, Simon gave Clary another hug, telling her that he was sorry all over again.

"You're my best friend, Simon," Clary insisted. "I don't ever want to lose you. I don't think I can get through this whole college thing without you."

"You won't lose me," he promised her. "I'll see you at the gig tomorrow night, right?" he asked, reminding Clary that his band was playing in the city again on Saturday night.

"I wouldn't miss it," Clary smiled at him.

"I'll save you a front row seat, okay?" he asked, before he also promised to hang out with her on Sunday afternoon. The two of them agreed to sit down and talk about everything that had happened recently, and Simon suggested that maybe they could sketch another comic strip together, too.

Then, as though trying to regain some sort of 'manly credit' after all their hugs and tears and promises, Simon gave Clary a high five as he headed out her room, and Clary simply rolled her eyes at him. But she couldn't help grinning a little, too. At least she had some sort of hope now, that Simon would make more effort with their friendship and they would work everything out.

* * *

After Simon left, Clary decided that she wanted to freshen up a little, that she didn't want to mope around in her hoodie all evening. She took a quick shower and attempted to make her hair look a little better, and she also changed into a more stylish black T-shirt and jeans before she picked up her phone to check her messages.

She saw that Luke had sent her a couple photos of his night at the art gallery with her mom, and Clary sent him a reply, telling him that the pictures looked amazing and that her mom looked beautiful in her new dress.

She also noticed that her dad had sent her a message at some point during the afternoon. Cautiously, Clary opened the message to see that he'd sent her a photo of a mural he'd passed on his way to work in the city earlier in the morning-apparently he'd thought of her when he saw it.

The message was short, to-the-point, with no acknowledgement of the fact that he hadn't spoken to her since the last time she'd called him. Clary simply responded politely, telling him that the mural looked good.

Maybe this would be the start of her dad making more effort to stay in touch, but maybe it wouldn't. Clary didn't know what would happen, and she didn't want any false hope to win out over the reality of her current situation with her father.

Whatever happened, Clary decided that she couldn't let all of this stuff with her dad get to her anymore-she had other people in her life who cared about her, and if he wanted to be more involved in her life, then _he_ would have to make the effort from now on.

After she'd sent the message to her dad, Clary sent a quick text to her mom, just to tell her that she loved her.

It didn't take long for Clary to reach for her sketchbook, the way she usually did when she was dealing with difficult situations. Her sketches had always been a source of reassurance to her, and she was so relieved to have the book back.

Out of habit, Clary started flipping through the pages, feeling comforted at the sight of all her old sketches. However, as she got to the back of the book, she noticed something there that hadn't been there before; something that was out of place…

There was a piece of paper at the back of the sketchbook, folded into four squares and clipped to the inside back cover, with just a paperclip holding it in place.

For some reason, Clary's heart started beating faster. Suddenly, she thought of Jace, standing opposite her outside the coffee shop earlier, holding her sketchbook almost protectively as he handed it back to her. Yet whatever was on that piece of paper, Clary allowed herself a brief moment to feel grateful that Jace had at least respected her book enough to not write anything on the actual pages.

With trembling hands, Clary removed the paperclip and unfolded the piece of paper.

She let out a gasp as she saw what was actually on the page...

It was a sketch, with the details so precise, so perfect, that it suggested _years_ of experience, years of passion when it came to drawing. Yet the skill behind the drawing wasn't what made Clary gasp in shock...

The sketch was of Clary, sitting at a table opposite Jace. The picture was black-and-white, which made Clary feel even more emotional.

There was a pile of books sketched on the table between them, along with a few music notes that had been added in to the background of the picture.

She noticed that there was only a little color in the sketch; there were several shades of red in Clary's hair, further confirming that the girl in the sketch sitting opposite the guy who looked just like Jace was definitely supposed to be her.

And then there were the _bright red hearts_ sketched in above their heads. The hearts that Clary had told Jace that she liked to sketch in her pictures of her favorite couples.

Finally, Clary noticed the one word that was written at the top of the sketch with a question mark at the end of it, and she felt a couple of tears fall down her cheek as she read the word over and over again…

 _Clace?_


	7. Chapter 7

The tears continued to flow as Clary stared at Jace's sketch in total amazement, feeling completely overcome with emotion, with shock, her eyes constantly drawn back to that one word at the top of the page.

She kept blinking rapidly in disbelief, afraid that this wasn't real, like what she was seeing might just be a dream, or like it was too good to be true.

She couldn't believe that Jace actually saw her in a romantic way-in the back of her mind, she'd always assumed that he simply viewed her as a source of mockery or entertainment, an amusing distraction from his job, and she'd never really thought that she could match up to all the attractive women he always flirted with; she'd never even seen herself as Jace's _type_. But the contents of the sketch seemed to be saying otherwise; or maybe he liked her in spite of the fact that she was nothing like his usual type of girl…

Clary wasn't even sure if she would ever be able to explain to Jace just how much a gesture like this meant to her; for so long, Clary had been the outside observer, obsessing over the romances of fictional couples and total strangers, romances that she had never been a part of. Every romance that she followed had always seemed like a dream, a fantasy, wishful thinking of what she had never truly believed that she could have for herself; but now, Jace had actually given her a 'romance' of her own with this black-and-white sketch, complete with a 'ship name' for the two of them.

As Clary blinked back more tears, she suddenly remembered the time that Jace had asked her why there were no 'beautiful redheads' in her sketches, and how she'd responded that she hadn't found a good enough love story for a redhead yet. And now, she was finally part of a love story, if only on paper. Jace had allowed her to be a main character in her own romance, rather than just the girl sketching in the background. Even though she was still kind of mad at Jace, she would always be grateful for this.

Clary traced the sketch softly with the tips of her fingers, partly out of some weird desire to somehow jump right into the page (in the way that she'd always dreamed of jumping into portals into fictional worlds), and partly out of appreciation for the skill behind the picture.

She guessed that this wouldn't be Jace's usual style of picture, what with the bright red hearts and the portmanteau of the two names (and she felt grateful yet again that he'd actually taken the time to draw something for her that suited her own personal taste, rather than his own), but the fact that Jace was obviously pretty experienced when it came to drawing was undeniable. If she had to admit it, she would say that he was maybe a little _better_ than she was at the whole sketching-pictures thing, in spite of her years of dedication to drawing; the details were just that little bit sharper.

Clary shook her head in disbelief as she continued to trace the lines of the picture with her fingers. She hadn't even known that Jace could draw like this; she'd never even guessed it in the whole time she'd known him. All this time, she'd believed that he only wanted to see the contents of her sketchbook just to laugh at her and mock her, but now Clary was considering the possibility that maybe he'd also been interested in what she was drawing from an artist's point of view, too.

She hadn't known that Jace that could draw, in the same way that she hadn't known he could play the piano. What if Jace was studying at an Academy of Art, like she was? Or some kind of music school? Clary had never even taken the time to find out.

Clary also started to think about the times that Jace seemed to be hiding novels in the inside pocket of his leather jacket sometimes at _The Half-Moon_ , and then she wondered if the guy she'd once seen at the back of the coffee shop-his face hidden by a large classic book-had actually been Jace, too, keeping an eye on Alec from a distance and reading while he waited to start his shift. If that was true, then she apparently hadn't picked up on the fact that Jace might also be as passionate about books as she was, as well.

Suddenly, a memory of something that Jace had said to her not long after they'd first met pushed its way to the forefront of Clary's mind, the words now perfectly clear:

 _"Maybe I stay up late at night reading classic novels, or playing the piano, or painting romantic pictures, while I dream about the day my soulmate walks into my life…"_

At the time, Clary had just laughed his words off. Now, she was starting to wonder if maybe she'd misjudged Jace. Right from the start, Clary had imagined him as being like the jocks who'd tormented her back at high school, or the typical hot-but-shallow kind of guy who spent his life partying and hitting on women; and maybe those images had kind of stuck, in spite of everything else that had happened. She felt like an idiot as she looked at the picture again and told herself that there was obviously so much that she didn't know about Jace; that there was much more to him than just the smirks and the raised eyebrows.

Now, in spite of still being kind of irritated with Jace for everything that had happened recently (and also knowing that they would have to sit and talk about it all at some point), Clary was overcome with a strong desire to sit and watch as Jace painted pictures; to sit and listen as he played song after song on the piano; to talk to him about his favorite books, his favorite songs, his favorite pictures; she even wanted to go back to sitting at her usual table at _The Half-Moon_ with her sketchbook open as Jace stood close to her with his mocking laughter and his smirks and his winks while she attempted to throw insults at him in return. She missed witnessing 'Malec's' romance every Friday afternoon, but she also missed _Jace_ taking every opportunity to mock her while she watched them, too.

Now that she was finally allowing herself to admit to all this stuff, Clary couldn't help thinking about how she also wanted to run her hands through Jace's blond hair, to feel how soft it was; she wanted to look deep into his eyes, taking in the different colors; she wanted to run her hands over the tattoos on Jace's arms, ask him what they all meant…

Deep down, Clary suspected that this is how she had secretly felt all along, that this was the reason why she had always felt so nervous, so out of her depth when she was around Jace…

Clary couldn't help blushing as these thoughts and realizations rushed around her mind. This was the kind of stuff that she'd tried to convey in all her romantic sketches of her favorite couples, but she'd never felt any of these feelings herself before; it was all kind of confusing, and a little overwhelming.

She stared intently at the sketch yet again, still wishing that she could jump right into the picture and be a part of it, but then she reminded herself that the picture didn't have to be just some romantic fantasy-if she could somehow summon a little courage, then maybe, for once, she could turn a romantic sketch into a reality. She just had to take that first step into the unknown, like all of the characters in her favorite books when their stories were just about to get started.

In a few swift movements, Clary had put on her shoes and her mom's leather jacket. Just before she headed out of her door, she also picked up a friendship bracelet from her desk that Simon had made for her when they were about eight years old, deciding that she was going to wear it as some kind of good-luck charm tonight.

* * *

Clary practically ran through the streets of Brooklyn on her way to _The Half-Moon_. She knew that if she slowed her pace, even for a second, all of her fears and doubts would creep back into her mind and she would talk herself out of whatever it was she was about to do.

A part of her really hoped that Jace would still be at the coffee shop this evening, that he would be working late…but another part of her hoped that he would have already finished for the day, giving her an out, because she was suddenly terrified at the thought of facing him again.

As she forced herself to keep walking, telling herself that she just had to put one foot in front of the other, that she just had to move _forward_ , Clary desperately tried to channel some of her mom's inner strength. She folded her arms as she picked up her pace, trying to draw her mother's leather jacket closer to her, as though it could somehow provide her with a little extra courage.

Her mom would have been brave in a situation like this; her mom _had_ been brave, back when she'd first fallen in love with Clary's father and she'd admitted her feelings for him, diving head-first into their romance-if all the stories her mom had told her were true, anyway. And then her mom had been brave all over again, after Clary's dad walked out and she'd found love for a second time recently.

In spite of how her mom's first romance had turned out, Clary knew that the love had been there at first; she knew that her mom had at least taken a risk and followed her heart, refusing to play it safe despite not knowing at the time what the eventual outcome would be. Right now, Clary really hoped that she could follow her mom's lead.

When she arrived at the door leading into _The Half-Moon_ , Clary saw a flash of blond hair through the glass window, and her heart rate sped up. She had just reached her hand forward, towards the door handle, but then she stopped herself at the last second, feeling suddenly overcome with nerves, and like she needed to take a moment.

Clary leaned against the outside wall for a little while, trying to compose herself as she rested her head against the wall and took deep breaths while she attempted to gather her thoughts.

The minutes were ticking by, and Clary knew that she was wasting time, or more accurately, giving herself enough time to talk herself out of this, enough of an opportunity to back out. She almost couldn't believe that she was feeling so nervous now at the thought of seeing Jace again. She'd just seen him this morning. She'd seen him almost every Friday afternoon for weeks. He'd seen her at her worst moments, and he'd seen her looking a total mess. Yet right now, these attempts at rationalization weren't doing anything to calm her nerves.

 _Get it together_ , Clary told herself firmly, the voice in her head sounding weirdly like Jace for a moment.

After one last pause to take a couple more deep breaths, Clary reached forward with a trembling hand and opened the door.

She had just walked inside and taken a few shaky steps down the couple of stairs that led to the tables when she spotted him, standing a few feet away from the counter.

Clary stopped in her tracks, feeling like she was temporarily frozen to the spot. She could still feel her heart beating at an alarming rate. Vaguely, she was aware of the fact that Jace looked like he had been just about to leave work for the day, because he was wearing his leather jacket and waving to a couple of his fellow baristas. She wasn't sure whether to feel grateful that she'd arrived just in time, or feel _scared_ that she'd arrived just in time.

Jace must have caught a glimpse of her hair or something out of the corner of his eye, because he suddenly stopped grinning at his colleagues and turned slowly to face her, now looking uncomfortable.

Clary stared back at him, the thought suddenly hitting her that she hadn't actually planned what she was going to do once she got to this point. Her main focus had simply been getting to _The Half-Moon_ and finding Jace. She had no idea what she was supposed to do or say after that. She felt like such an idiot.

She noticed that Jace also looked a little nervous, a little uncertain, which only caused Clary's heart to beat even faster.

They continued to stare at each other, as though locked in some kind of weird standoff, each waiting for the other to say or do something.

Almost without thinking about it, Clary placed a trembling hand on her hip, more to have something to do with her hands than anything else, but then she decided to go with the first idea that came into her head. She raised an eyebrow at Jace, hoping she looked brave.

" _Clace?_ " Clary asked him, trying to sound like she was mocking him a little, the way he'd always mocked her for her 'Malec' sketches, although she couldn't help showing her amusement in her facial expression as well.

At Clary's words and facial expression, Jace slowly started to smirk, looking much more like his usual self.

"Clace," he responded with a shrug and a grin, looking pretty pleased with himself, like the combination of their names was obvious, or like he'd come up with some sort of ingenious idea.

"Hey," Jace continued as he held his hands up in his gesture of surrender, looking like he was trying not to laugh at her, "if you don't like the sketch, maybe you can draw another picture of us for your book." He smirked again and winked at her. "I'm totally comfortable with posing for pictures naked, just putting that out ther-"

Clary didn't allow him to finish his sentence. With determined strides, she walked right up to him, acting more on instinct than any kind of rational thought, telling herself that she just wanted to do _something_ to stop Jace from talking, or to stop herself from blushing bright red at his words.

She was vaguely aware of Jace opening his arms as she got close to him, and she allowed herself a brief moment to feel grateful for the fact that Jace didn't push her away. Instead, he pulled her close, supporting her as she took that final step.

And then they were kissing.

Clary didn't even know who had started it, who had made that first move as they got in each other's space; all she knew was that Jace's lips were on hers now. The kiss felt like the perfect conclusion after all their interactions over the past few weeks; it felt like the logical next step, like everything had been leading up to this, all of their joking insults and smirks and raised eyebrows, even though Clary would never have imagined this happening when she first met Jace, would never have believed that her interest in Magnus and Alec's relationship would somehow lead her to this moment.

As amazing as the kiss felt, a little voice in the back of Clary's head was reminding her of how inexperienced she was when it came to the whole kissing thing, and she worried that this would be obvious to Jace. At first, she tried to go through the motions of kissing in her mind, silently giving herself instructions, telling herself to tilt her head, part her lips, just like the way she'd done this back at high school when she practiced with Simon; but after a little while, all of that became impossible-it was too difficult to think clearly about anything when Jace's lips were on hers, and his hands were running up and down her back, so in the end she decided to just let go and let it happen.

Anyway, Jace didn't seem to be complaining, as he continued to kiss her enthusiastically, now running his hands through Clary's hair.

Clary suddenly realized that she could do the same thing now, too, so she ran a hand through Jace's blond hair, feeling how soft it was. Everything about this felt so weirdly perfect: Jace's lips on hers, her hands in his hair, being held in his arms. Clary understood now why so many women had wanted to do this with Jace. But then all thoughts of Jace's past lovers were driven from her mind as she focused only on Jace and their kiss.

For most of her teenage years, Clary had worried that the 'spark' the characters in her favorite books always seemed to feel when they kissed someone was simply fictional, that it didn't actually exist in real life. She'd also worried that she would never experience that feeling herself. But now, Clary was really starting to question her past beliefs, because right here, in this moment, it felt almost as though the room had faded into nothing more than a blur; it felt like everything around them was happening in slow motion, like nothing else mattered just yet…

Suddenly, the sound of loud applause startled Clary back into reality. She jumped in shock and stopped kissing Jace so she could turn her head in the direction of the noise.

Clary let out a gasp of surprise as she took in the sight of Magnus, standing by the counter as though to order coffee and still wearing his jacket, like he'd just arrived. He was clapping his hands enthusiastically as he smirked at the two of them. Alec stood next to him, looking totally mortified by Magnus's behavior.

Clary felt herself blush bright red. She'd forgotten that the two of them had arranged to meet here this evening.

" _Magnus_!" Alec groaned as Magnus put his fingers to his lips to wolf-whistle at the two of them. Then Alec looked almost guiltily over at Clary, like he was silently apologizing for his boyfriend's behavior. Clary felt a little guilty herself-if only Alec knew just how much she had seen and heard of _his_ romance.

Magnus went quiet, but he smiled and winked at the two of them.

"We have an audience," Clary muttered with an embarrassed grin as she turned back towards Jace, who was still holding her in his arms.

It was… _weird_ , having someone watch her in the middle of a romantic moment. For Clary, it had always been the other way around.

"Just shut up and kiss me," Jace told her gently, mockingly, with a shake of his head followed by a laugh, like Clary's reaction was hilarious to him after everything he'd seen over the past few weeks.

Jace continued to laugh as Clary started kissing him again.

She could still hear a little of Magnus and Alec's conversation by the counter between her kisses with Jace: "Babe, try this," she heard Alec mutter to Magnus.

Clary opened her eyes in surprise at Alec's use of this term of endearment with Magnus. She hadn't realized that the two of them had got to the calling-each-other-babe-stage of their relationship. She must have missed that during her Friday afternoons at the coffee shop. It was so adorable that Clary discreetly tried to turn her head a little as she continued to kiss Jace, watching them as Alec held out his coffee to Magnus, trying to get him to taste it. Clary suspected that Alec was doing everything he could to get Magnus's full attention back on him…

"Are you _seriously_ watching the two of them right now?"

Clary started blushing at Jace's words. She turned her head back towards him in time to see him staring at her with a totally baffled expression, like he couldn't believe that he was actually competing with his brother for a girl's attention. The expression reminded Clary of all the times he'd stared at her in total bewilderment while she watched 'Malec's' relationship from afar.

"Just shut up and kiss me!" Clary echoed Jace's previous words as she grinned, trying not to look too embarrassed. It was still strange, when she thought about the fact that Alec was Jace's brother, when she remembered that Magnus and Alec were no longer two strangers who she watched from across the coffee shop.

Jace shrugged, still looking a little baffled by Clary's behaviour, and she heard him mutter, "Strangest girl I've ever met…" almost to himself, but then his lips were on hers again, and Clary allowed herself to get lost in their kiss for a little while longer.

Clary wasn't sure exactly how much longer the kiss went on for, but what might have been a few minutes later, they finally broke apart. Clary was pleased however that Jace continued to hold her close.

The two of them both shared a grin, their heads still close together, like they were both in a state of disbelief that they'd just shared a kiss in the middle of a coffee shop-a coffee shop where Jace happened to work.

Jace started laughing, then Clary followed. "This is so weird!" she told him between gasps of laughter. She still felt a little light-headed, giddy almost, the way her mom had told her she felt when she came back from her first official date with Luke.

" _Good_ weird, right?" Jace asked her with a raised eyebrow, and Clary quickly nodded, guessing that no other woman had described a kiss with Jace as 'weird' before. She realized that she actually felt happy, like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Like she was finally moving forward.

Clary knew that the fictional couples from her favorite book series-and all the couples in the city who she drew pictures of-would always be a significant part of her life, that she would never fully stop being the outside observer of the love stories going on around her, but she decided that it would be awesome to have a romance of her own, too; her own personal love story.

Then, Clary noticed that Jace's expression was a little softer, a little gentler; it was his more caring, more protective look that he didn't seem to show to people very often. He ran his hands through her hair again, slowly, like he was taking his time. She was looking forward to seeing a little more of this side of Jace, getting to know him a little better, and she hoped that she could be there for him, providing support as he and Alec dealt with everything that was going on with their parents.

"Clary, I'm...I'm sorry, about the whole 'brothers' thing…And for the record, I think you're pretty amazing at drawing; I'm sorry I never told you that…" he muttered. Then he shook his head, like he was a little embarrassed by his words. "Wow, I really suck at apologies…"

"I think you're pretty good at apologies," Clary whispered back, still feeling a little dazed. She decided that Jace maybe deserved a little praise now, after all the times she'd insulted him. They could talk about other, more serious stuff some other time. "Jace, that sketch, it was…." She almost said 'beautiful', but then she remembered how Jace had previously seemed a little uncomfortable by the use of that word. "It was _amazing_ ," she told him instead with a grin, deciding to use a word that both he and Alec seemed to like so much. She didn't tell him that she was planning on framing his sketch and displaying it proudly on her dorm-room wall, the same way that Simon had displayed the picture of the woman wearing revealing leather clothes on _his_ wall.

Jace smiled softly at her for a second, like he was actually flattered by her praise. But then his trademark mocking grin was suddenly back on his face. "Yeah, well," he shrugged, sounding like he was trying not to laugh at whatever it was he was about to say, "I don't think we should _completely_ rule out the idea of posing naked for pictures just yet…"

As Jace smirked at his 'hilarious' joke, Clary could no longer hide her embarrassment. She tried her best to bury her face in Jace's chest, so he wouldn't see. But she could feel his laughter as he pulled her even closer to him.

After a couple more minutes, Clary noticed that he turned his head to look in the direction of the window. "Uh…," he muttered, sounding a little nervous again, a little unsure, "how would you feel about a double date?"

With a confused frown, Clary turned her head to see what he was looking at. She noticed that Magnus and Alec were now sitting at their usual table by the window, and they'd brought two more chairs over to the table at some point during the last few minutes, apparently just assuming that Clary and Jace would be joining them this evening.

Judging by the nervous look on Jace's face, Clary guessed that he hadn't exactly planned for this to happen.

Clary nodded in agreement, like this double date was no big deal to her, but she couldn't help feeling a fresh wave of anxiety at the use of the word 'date'. Right now, she could fully sympathize with Alec, back when he'd arrived for his first date with Magnus, looking terrified.

Clary's hands shook a little as she followed Jace to Magnus and Alec's table. She tried to put her hands in her pockets to hide them, but Jace seemed to notice, because he reached his arm back so he could take hold of her hand.

"Relax," he muttered, his voice sounding soothing.

Alec raised his eyebrow when they got even closer to the table, his eyes focused on their joined hands, and Clary couldn't help thinking that maybe Jace wasn't normally big on the whole hand-holding thing. But then Alec seemed to get distracted by Magnus, who stood up to take off his jacket, revealing that he was wearing a shirt with only a couple of the buttons fastened, leaving most of his torso on display. Clary noticed that his jeans (which were covered in glitter) also had a couple of squares cut out of them.

"What? Too much?" Magnus asked as he took in Alec's expression.

"Nah, he likes it when you wear stuff like that, he told me…" Jace shrugged at Magnus as they arrived at the table.

" _Jace_!" Alec snapped at him, blushing bright red as he glared at his brother.

Clary could kind of understand now why shy, reserved Alec had wanted Jace to keep his distance from their table when he'd first started dating Magnus, especially as Jace just seemed to say the first thing that came into his head when it came to talking about relationships, and Alec's private conversations with his brother were apparently no exception.

Magnus didn't seem anywhere near as embarrassed though, if his smug grin was anything to go by.

Jace seemed to work out that it was time to change the subject. He started smirking, and Clary sensed that some kind of joke was coming. "Clary," he said, now definitely sounding like he was joking around, "this is my brother, Alec Lightwood, and this is his boyfriend, Magnus Bane…"

Clary rolled her eyes as Jace made a big show of introducing them like they were complete strangers and this was the first time they'd ever met.

She had to admit that it was weird though, being here with Magnus and Alec, meeting them more as her friends than as the couple she'd viewed almost as a fictional fantasy ever since she first laid eyes on them at the coffee shop. It was strange to think that she was going to get to know all about their 'real lives' from now on.

Alec also rolled his eyes in Jace's direction as he stood up to shake Clary's hand, and the two of them shared a silent moment of exasperation at Jace's behavior.

Magnus smiled pleasantly at Clary when he shook her hand. "I believe I have you to thank for my reunion with Alexander," he whispered to her, sounding genuinely grateful, even as he laughed a little.

Clary had to fight off another blush as she thought about her last conversation with Alec. It was nice though, to think Magnus believed that she'd truly played a part in getting the two of them back together.

She was glad that they were both being friendly to her, and that they weren't judging her for her behavior over the past few weeks, especially as the last time they'd seen her, she'd been yelling at Jace outside the coffee shop.

"And guys, this is Clary Fray," Jace continued with a smirk as Clary finished shaking their hands.

"Oh, is this your girlfriend?" Magnus asked Jace with a seemingly innocent expression, but then he couldn't seem to resist smirking smugly and raising an eyebrow, obviously aware that he would make Jace uncomfortable with his 'girlfriend' question.

Clary felt a little uncomfortable too at Magnus's question to Jace. As well-informed as she was when it came to the world of fictional romances, this romance of her own was all so new to her, and she wasn't even sure she knew _how_ to be anyone's girlfriend just yet. She knew that she still had a lot to learn, but then she thought of Alec, and how nervous he'd been on his first date with Magnus, and also about how he'd got past all that, facing his fears when it came to relationships, and she decided that she was going to take inspiration from him.

She caught Jace glaring at Magnus out of the corner of her eye and mouthing a few words of warning to him while Magnus continued to smirk. Clary tried not to laugh as she decided that Magnus was definitely more than a match for Jace when it came to trading jokes and playful insults.

Clary still felt a little nervous as she sat down slowly in her seat. She couldn't get over the fact that she and Jace had just kissed, that she was now sitting at a table next to Jace and opposite _Magnus and Alec_. As far as her first date ever went, it was pretty special, and pretty strange at the same time.

But then a couple of Jace's fellow baristas brought coffee over for them, and the conversation started to flow, and Clary silently willed herself to relax, trying to tell herself that this was pretty similar to what she did every Friday at _The Half-Moon_.

As they talked, with Magnus and Jace almost doing enough talking for the four of them, Alec put his arm around Magnus's shoulder and pulled him a little closer, now looking like an expert at the whole relationship thing. Clary started to smile with pride as she thought about how far he'd come over the past few weeks, but then she had to stop herself, reminding herself that tonight, she was facing Alec as Jace's brother, not as a subject of her romantic sketches. She supposed she would have to get used to that now. Although maybe Alec and Magnus would let her paint more detailed pictures of the two of them once she got to know them a little better; maybe they could put the paintings up on their apartment walls or something…

Jace seemed to think that Alec was on to something, because he suddenly draped an arm over Clary's shoulder, following his brother's lead as Alec rolled his eyes.

In spite of Alec's exasperated reactions around his brother, Clary also noticed that the two of them kept looking over at each other with concerned expressions every now and again, like they were silently supporting one another and checking that the other was okay. Clary thought about how sweet it was that they had such a close brotherly bond, especially with everything else that had been going on in their personal lives lately.

They all continued to talk, and Clary felt her nerves fade a little as she leaned into Jace, and Magnus asked her questions about her life as an art student, before he told her about a couple of sketches he'd drawn recently for an upcoming fashion shoot. Clary had a feeling that he sensed her nerves and was going out of his way to make her feel more at ease.

As the evening continued, Clary couldn't help smiling to herself as she took in everything that was going on around her. Magnus and Alec eventually started bickering affectionately with one another like a married couple, and she shared a few more discreet kisses with Jace while Magnus and Alec were distracted.

Clary felt weirdly content as she took another sip of her cup of coffee. She knew that her life wouldn't suddenly be perfect; she didn't know what the future would hold for any of the relationships that were happening in her life right now, and she still had things she needed to deal with, issues she needed to resolve, and of course, she had to get through yet another tough semester at college…but right here, right now, Clary simply thought of all the blank pages left to fill in her sketchbook, pages that she had the ability to fill with _happy_ moments, no matter what else was going on in her life.

She was already looking forward to filling those pages with pictures of Malec and Clace.


	8. Epilogue

Clary Fray sat back in her seat at _The Half-Moon_ and took a sip of the cup of coffee that had recently been left on the table for her (complete with the chocolate powder shaped into a heart at the top of the cup).

She sighed a deep sigh of contentment, feeling relieved that she'd got through a busy couple months at art school.

For what seemed like forever, she'd been so focused on her studying, her art projects and her exams, so it was amazing to have a little free time this evening to spend at the coffee shop; a coffee shop that had now become one of her favorite places, complete with its familiar glass artificial candles, its dark blue walls decorated with paintings and photographs of the city skyline at night, and the old piano in one corner of the room.

After she'd sat down in her usual seat, Clary had put the leather jacket she always borrowed from her mom over the back of the seat, and then she'd placed her sketchbook on the table, along with a new book that she'd recently started to read (this one was about a vampire who was in love with a wizard, and Clary was already planning several sketches based on the relationship between the two main characters, as soon as she finished the book), and finally, she'd looked around the room to catch a glimpse of all the couples who were here today, before she picked up her cup of coffee.

After a couple more sips of her coffee, Clary took hold of her pencil so she could add the finishing touches to one of her recent sketches, but every few seconds, she looked over her shoulder to discreetly watch the couple who were sitting in the far corner of the coffee shop, at the same table where Clary had attempted to hide herself away one time a few months ago, back when she'd been searching for her missing sketchbook.

Recently, a picture had been put up on the wall behind the table-it was a black-and-white photograph of three ships sailing into New York Harbor, and the picture hung on the wall directly above the new couple who were sitting at the back of the room.

The boy at the table in the corner of the coffee shop had brown hair; he was wearing glasses, faded jeans and sneakers, as well as a T-shirt with a band logo on the front. His body language suggested that he was a little nervous, but every now and again, a soft smile seemed to cross his face as he watched the girl sitting opposite him with an expression of barely disguised fascination; it was like he couldn't believe his luck.

The girl sitting opposite him had long, jet black hair that she kept flicking over her shoulder as she talked, looking totally cool and confident. She also had a couple of tattoos, and she was dressed all in black, with the exception of a dark blue leather jacket that she'd worn as she walked into the coffee shop a few minutes ago, before she'd swaggered towards her table in her high-heeled boots, then she'd taken off her jacket and thrown it over the back of her seat.

Clary already knew that this couple sitting in the far corner of the room had only been on a few other dates so far at the coffee shop, but she _really_ wanted things to work out between them; she had become invested in this relationship, and she hoped that there would be many more dates for them after this one.

She turned back to her sketch-a sketch that just happened to be one of her interpretations of this couple-on-a-date, complete with her latest idea for their 'ship name', which was written in pencil at the top of the sketch.

After Clary overheard them talking about their favorite songs for a little while, the couple started to share headphones as they listened to music together, which Clary decided to take as a positive sign.

Clary smiled to herself as she continued to discreetly glance at the couple from over her shoulder while she continued with her sketch. She couldn't help it-for all her boyfriend mocked her about it, she still got way too invested in other people's romantic relationships, and she thought that the sharing-headphones gesture was really sweet. She was even thinking about adding the headphones into her sketch.

Yet this wasn't like all her other observations of the couples she encountered from a distance in Brooklyn, where she often became fascinated by the love lives of total strangers. It wasn't even a situation similar to her love of shipping fictional couples from books and TV shows, because this time, Clary already knew this couple personally.

Suddenly, as though he could sense that she was watching him, Clary's best friend, Simon Lewis, looked up from his phone screen where his music playlist was currently displayed, and then he looked over in Clary's direction and grinned at her.

Clary grinned back at him, and then, trying to be as subtle as possible, she gave him a thumbs-up, silently offering her encouragement, while Simon gave her a thumbs-up in return…

"Wow."

Clary jumped and then blinked in surprise a couple times as soon as she heard the muttered 'wow' coming from someone standing close to her, before she turned around in time to see that a certain blond-haired barista had snuck up on her while she'd been looking over her shoulder at her friend.

Jace was looking from Clary to Simon and Izzy with an all-to-familiar expression on his face-one of his eyebrows was raised and he looked like he was fighting off a smirk; it was the expression that clearly showed that he thought it was pretty strange that Clary was giving Simon a thumbs-up in encouragement, getting over-invested in yet another romantic relationship, but he also seemed to find the situation pretty amusing, too.

Quickly, Clary turned the page of her sketchbook, hoping that Jace hadn't seen the word 'Sizzy'-her latest idea for Simon and Izzy's 'ship name'-which she had scribbled in pencil at the top of the page. No doubt that word would only lead to extra mockery.

"Whatever, Jace," she said, making a big show of rolling her eyes and acting like she was totally annoyed by the interruption, the way she used to do when they first met, but now, she couldn't help smiling at him too as her heart started to beat a little faster.

Jace still made her feel a little nervous sometimes, but nervous in the most amazing way. She was still fascinated by his hair, his tattoos, the splashes of gold in his eyes. He was like he was a beautiful picture, a work of art that she was finally allowed to look at and appreciate, which was kind of a relief now after she'd denied to herself for so long that she had a crush on him.

"Hey," said Jace in response, his expression softening as a real smile crossed his face. He leaned down to kiss her on the lips in greeting.

"Hey," said Clary with another smile, before she kissed him back.

Even after three months of dating, she still felt like it was pretty awesome that she got to do this-that she got to kiss Jace at _The Half-Moon_ ; that the two of them went on dates to other places after Jace finished work for the day and Clary finished class; that she got to hang out with Jace outside of work, at home.

Only last week, a couple of the girls from her dorm had been talking about 'a place they'd heard about called _The Half-Moon_ ' and it had been a little weird, but weird in a good way, when Clary had been able to tell them, "Yeah, I know that place, my boyfriend works there." She was still getting used to all the 'boyfriend stuff'.

Jace leaned in for another kiss, ignoring his boss, who rolled his eyes as he looked in Jace and Clary's direction.

"How was class?" Jace asked her, the moment they broke apart. He seemed reluctant to go back to work, even though his boss was still glaring at him.

"Don't ask," Clary sighed, thinking of the very long day she'd just had; she'd spent most of it going to class and working on assignments, as well as ignoring a couple of messages from her dad.

"That bad, huh?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Clary shrugged. Suddenly, her day didn't seem so bad anymore. "It was okay, I guess. How was work?"

"Don't ask," Jace sighed, dramatically, but he also smirked as he made a big show of placing his hands over his heart, and Clary guessed that maybe he was mocking her a little for her own response to the question.

Clary rolled her eyes at him, but still she couldn't help thinking that it was kind of nice, to be able to share casual conversations with Jace about their day-to-day lives.

Since they'd started dating only three months ago, Clary had already learned so much more about Jace and his life outside of work:

She'd met his mom, who was only just starting to feel a little better now after her breakup from her husband, and his grandmother, who had apparently taught Jace how to play the piano when he was just a kid, and she had inspired his love of music.

Clary had found out that he had a younger brother, Max, who divided his time between Brooklyn and Los Angeles, where the Lightwood siblings' dad now lived.

She'd also found out (to her surprise) that Jace had a sister, Isabelle, who before this month had been travelling around Europe for almost a year.

Clary clearly remembered the Saturday afternoon a couple of months ago, when they'd all been hanging out at Magnus Bane's Brooklyn loft, and Izzy had called Alec from Paris. Clary had caught a glimpse of her on the screen of her older brother's phone as they'd talked-she'd seen Izzy leaning against the balcony of a hotel in Paris, with the Eiffel Tower in the distance behind her, and she'd been shocked at just how much Isabelle Lightwood resembled the woman in the picture that Clary had made for Simon-the woman with long, jet black hair who wore a leather skirt and high-heels and red lipstick.

Clary had tried to play it cool when she'd noticed the resemblance between Izzy and the woman in Simon's favorite picture, but she was pretty sure she'd failed. She remembered gasping in surprise as she glanced at Alec's phone screen, thinking about how amazed Simon would be if he could have seen Izzy for himself.

Jace had asked her a couple times what was up, looking pretty amused the whole time, while Clary had tried to shrug his questions off.

"It's a ship thing, isn't it?" Jace had finally asked her with a raised eyebrow, apparently working out the exact reason why Clary looked to fascinated.

"It's a ship thing," Clary had eventually confirmed with a nod, trying not to blush.

And maybe, just maybe, she'd made sure to get Simon an invite to Magnus's next party a few weeks later, when Izzy had moved back home and Clary had found out that she would be going to the party, too.

It had been worth it when she'd seen Simon's reaction to meeting Izzy first-hand; she remembered how Simon had whispered, "Clary, she looks just like the woman in the picture!" the moment they were out of earshot from the others, and Clary had enthusiastically replied, "I know!", feeling so happy for Simon that a woman who was _exactly_ his type had somehow walked into his life, and then Clary and Simon _might_ have jumped up and down a little in celebration in the corner of the living room, ignoring the strange looks that both Jace and Alec gave them from over on the other side of the apartment.

As she thought about Isabelle Lightwood, and the evening that Izzy had first met Simon, Clary couldn't help throwing a few more anxious glances in her best friend's direction; she knew that Simon still wasn't exactly an expert at this whole relationship thing, and he'd had a few not-so-great experiences on the dating scene in Brooklyn since he'd started college, even trying to date two women at once not so long ago, before it had all ended in tears, but Clary really hoped that this time, he could make it work.

She could tell that he really liked Izzy-he'd been so nervous when he first met her, blushing and stumbling over his words, and Izzy had told Clary that Simon was 'adorable', which Clary guessed was a good thing. The two of them seemed to be getting along really well, and Clary hoped Simon wouldn't do anything to mess things up.

"Hey," said Jace, his tone of voice a lot softer this time, the way it usually was when he was trying to offer comfort. It seemed like he'd just worked out the reason why Clary was looking so worried. "They'll be okay."

"You don't know that," said Clary as she shrugged; she couldn't help it, she was still a little pessimistic.

"She likes him, she told me," Jace responded with a shrug of his own and then a grin.

Jace and Simon had bickered a lot when they first met, but Jace seemed to be warming up to him now, and he seemed to approve of Simon's dates with Izzy.

Clary managed to smile back at him, feeling a little reassured. Simon and Izzy did seem to have a lot in common, in spite of their seemingly different personalities. At the back of the room, the two of them were now having an intense discussion about _Star Wars_ , and Izzy seemed to be just as enthusiastic about the franchise as Simon was.

"You wanna go someplace else this evening after you finish your shift?" Clary asked Jace, thinking that maybe Jace had seen enough of the coffee shop for one day.

"Uh…" Jace replied, looking a little uncomfortable, for some reason, and like there was maybe something that he _wasn't_ saying, "I was thinking that maybe we could hang out here this evening?"

"Why?" Clary asked him with a raised eyebrow of her own. She loved hanging out at _The Half-Moon_ , but since they'd started dating, she and Jace often went on dates to other coffee shops and restaurants, especially after he'd been working long hours at the same place.

"Trust me, you're gonna wanna be here tonight," said Jace, sounding serious, and also pretty cryptic.

Before Clary could ask him anything else, Jace made a big deal of saying he had to get back to work, and he walked away to go clean another table.

Clary made a big show of glaring at him in exasperation as he walked away. She was overcome with curiosity as to why Jace wanted to stay at _The Half-Moon_ tonight, but she had a feeling that he wasn't going to reveal the reason why just yet. Jace was always full of surprises.

While she waited for Jace to finish work, Clary slowly turned the pages of her sketchbook, looking over a few of the sketches she'd drawn over the past few months…

The first sketch was one depicting Luke's romantic proposal to her mom at an art gallery recently. Clary had drawn the picture in black and white, with a drawing of Luke down on one knee in the center of the page, with the priceless paintings in the art gallery displayed on the walls around him. Clary was planning on making a larger copy of the picture to give to her mom and Luke as a wedding present in a few weeks' time.

She couldn't help feeling a little nervous as she thought about her mom's upcoming wedding. She was happy for her mom and Luke, of course, but lately her mom had been hinting that Clary should bring Jace as her date to the wedding. They hadn't been dating long, and Clary wasn't sure if she was supposed to ask him directly to go, or wait and see if he asked her, or if he'd even want to go to an event like a wedding with her-she wasn't sure if it would be too big of a commitment, too soon.

She'd talked a little about the wedding, telling Jace about Luke's proposal and the venues that her mom was considering for the ceremony, but that was about as far as the conversation had gone. She was kind of thinking about asking Magnus for advice on asking Jace to the wedding-out of everyone in their newly-formed friendship group, Magnus seemed more experienced when it came to romance and relationships.

Deciding not to think too much about the wedding right now, Clary turned to the next page of her sketchbook. She glanced at the sketch on the page, which showed her father, sitting behind his desk in his office in the city, looking every inch the businessman, with the New York City skyline drawn in outside the large window. Clary had cast half of the office in shadow as the sun set outside, a shadow which reflected on her father's face, making him look even more secretive, mysterious. Clary had thought about erasing this shadowing effect at first, but in the end, she'd left it in the sketch, deciding that it was strangely fitting.

She couldn't help sighing to herself as she looked at the picture of her father. Their relationship was still strained-he still tended to disappear for weeks at a time, taking his time to answer her calls, only to reappear months later, sending a casual message as though nothing had happened.

Clary knew that he would never change, but over time, it was becoming a little easier to accept this not-so-pleasant reality about her dad. Clary was moving on, and her dad no longer had the power to ruin her day the way he used to.

She turned the page, grateful to see a sketch of Simon on this fresh page-this was a sketch that Clary had drawn after she'd watched Simon play with his band at another local coffee shop last week; she'd drawn him singing into a microphone in front of an audience, still wearing his glasses and his favorite band T-shirt.

She wasn't sure if things were totally back to normal between her and Simon yet-their friendship was still a little awkward after the time they'd spent apart when they first started college, and after all of Simon's dating disasters, but things were getting better since they'd made up after their major argument, and Simon seemed to be making more of an effort to spend time with her-he'd helped her to design a few comic strips lately to upload to their joint fanart account, and Clary always tried to watch Simon's band practices when she was free.

A part of her was hoping that things worked out between Simon and Izzy so that Clary had an excuse to spend a little more time with her friend in a mutual friendship group, and so they wouldn't drift apart again as they progressed through college.

Clary looked again at the pictures of her mom and Luke, her dad, and Simon. Maybe things weren't perfect yet between them all, but they were her family, and they would be a part of her life for the rest of her life.

Eventually, Clary turned the pages of her sketchbook so she could look at a few of the other drawings. Most of them were sketches of couples-on-dates that Clary had added to her book recently: There were sketches of couples at _The Half-Moon_ , holding hands across tables and sharing cups of coffee; then there were sketches of couples hanging out together at various places in the city, including The Rockefeller Centre and Central Park and Times Square.

While she was in the middle of looking at these sketches, Jace approached her table again with a fresh cup of coffee.

"'Sizzy'? Seriously?" he asked her as he placed the cup on her table, that mocking tone back in his voice again, along with his trademark smirk.

Apparently, Jace had seen Clary's attempts at coming up with a portmanteau for Izzy and Simon when he'd been over at the table a few minutes ago, even though she'd tried her best to cover up her latest 'Sizzy' sketches.

"Whatever, Jace!" Clary snapped back at him, trying not to blush as she realized yet again that she still wasn't exactly subtle when it came to hiding her sketches from Jace at _The Half-Moon_.

He walked away from the table with his hands held up in the air in a gesture of surrender, but he was laughing. He looked over his shoulder and winked at her before he went to serve a couple of customers at the counter, looking pretty pleased with himself.

After another mock glare over in Jace's direction, Clary went back to looking at her sketchbook again. She smiled to herself as she got to the sketches of her and Jace.

The original ' _Clace?_ ' sketch that Jace had made for her before their first kiss now took pride of place on the wall in Clary's dorm room, in the same way that Simon had displayed his favorite sketch of the woman-in-leather on _his_ dorm room wall; the picture held so many happy memories for Clary, and she wanted to keep it safe, protected, in a place where she could look at it whenever she wanted.

Still, her sketchbook now contained other, newer pictures of the two of them-Clary had drawn a few pictures of just Jace, finally able to put her interpretation of him on paper…all of her attempts to capture the right shade of gold in his eyes, and the details of his tattoos, and the soft texture of his blond hair…

There was a picture of Jace relaxing on his bed after a long day, last night when the two of them had been hanging out at his apartment. He looked content, almost carefree.

Sometimes, Clary just liked to sit and watch as Jace painted pictures or relaxed with a book or played music. She liked that she got to be a part of this private world of his that he hardly ever let anyone see.

Clary turned the pages of her book and looked at several sketches of Jace as he played the piano, and also sketches of Jace working at _The Half-Moon_ , a smirk on his face as he served customers.

After that, there was a sketch of Jace and Clary, out on their second official date at a restaurant after their first double date with Alec and Magnus. The restaurant was one of the classier ones in Brooklyn, with a real candle displayed on the table between them.

There was also a picture that Clary had drawn of the two of them on their most recent date last weekend, when they had gone ice-skating together. They'd both laughed the whole time they'd attempted to skate, and Clary had tried her best to capture how much fun they'd had in her picture.

And of course, there were sketches of the two of them hanging out at _The Half-Moon_ , sharing cups of coffee and headphones so they could listen to music together when Jace was on his breaks, with a few books placed on the table between them.

Clary blinked a couple times as she stared at her 'Clace' pictures in amazement. Sometimes, she still felt a little surprised that this was her life now, that she got to do all these things with Jace that other couples always did.

Clary had also added a few pictures to her book that Jace had drawn for her. It had kind of become a thing between the two of them, since Jace had hidden that first sketch in her book, for Jace to leave pictures in her book. Now, it wasn't unusual for Clary to find folded-up pieces of paper clipped into her book containing sketches that Jace had made for her and discreetly slipped into her book throughout the day.

She remembered the night of their second date at the restaurant, when Jace had given her a sketch that he'd said he'd first drawn not long after Clary had started to head to _The Half-Moon_ every Friday. Apparently, he'd never even intended for anyone to ever see it, but now that they were together, Jace had decided to show it to her, and Clary always kept it secured between the first few pages of her sketchbook...

It was a picture of Clary, sitting at her table in the coffee shop and watching Magnus and Alec with a look of fascination on her face. On the other side of the room, Jace had drawn a picture of himself, looking at Clary from a distance with a similar expression on his own face, like he was really trying to _see_ her. The Clary-in-the-picture was apparently oblivious to the fact that he was even looking.

Even now, Clary felt a little emotional whenever she looked at that sketch. At the time, she'd had no idea that Jace had even noticed her, or that he'd ever thought about her as anything more than a source of mockery.

Last week, Jace had left a picture in Clary's book that showed six people-Simon and Izzy, Alec and Magnus, and Clary and Jace, all of them hanging out at Magnus and Alec's place, looking happy as they chilled out on the couch. This was another sketch that made Clary feel emotional-it showed exactly what she wanted to happen, for the six of them to become close friends and to hang out as couples on a regular basis. She really hoped that Simon and Izzy would end up together, so this image could become a reality.

Today, there was another folded-up piece of paper hidden among her pictures. When Clary opened it, she saw that it was one of Jace's typical pictures, showing him standing shirtless in the middle of his room while Clary painted a picture of him. Apparently, he still hadn't given up on his posing-for-pictures-naked idea.

Clary tried not to laugh as she looked at the picture again-she kind of thought that Jace might have exaggerated his muscles and his toned torso and the smoldering expression on his face a little.

She might have successfully covered up her laughter, but she wasn't sure she could hide the fact that she was blushing so easily, and she hoped Jace wasn't watching her from across the room right now. As she shook her head, Clary wrote, _Whatever, Jace!_ across the piece of paper, the way she always did. Then she folded it up and put it back in her book, where she was sure that Jace would find it again soon.

Clary stopped looking at her sketches for a moment so she could take a sip of her coffee. She noticed that Jace had shaped the chocolate powder into a music note. She frowned a little, wondering why Jace had chosen the music note for this cup of coffee. She wondered if he was leaving some kind of cryptic clue about something, the way he always liked to do.

After a few more seconds of trying and failing to work out what the music note could mean, she went back to looking at her book, and she smiled all over again when she turned the pages to her sketches of 'Malec'.

Things were different now-Magnus and Alec had become her friends; Clary regularly spent time with the two of them at their apartment and at various other places in Brooklyn; she was no longer just the girl who watched them from across the coffee shop while they went on dates, but still, the two of them would always hold a special place in her heart.

They were the couple who had made her believe in love again; they were the couple who always seemed like they could have walked out of one of her favorite romance novels or supernatural stories; she felt as though she had experienced the trials and tribulations of their relationship along with them from afar; their relationship had helped lead her to her romance with Jace.

At times, they became 'Malec' in her head again, in spite of the normal lives they both led outside of the coffee shop and the easy friendship that Clary now shared with the two of them. Even now, she was tempted to place her hand over her heart as she stared at their pictures.

She had drawn several more sketches of Magnus and Alec on their dates at the coffee shop, sharing their food and drink with one another, along with sketches of the two of them, at home, in the apartment they now shared, including a sketch of the two of them standing on the balcony, looking up at the stars, and another sketch of the two of them sitting close together on the couch, with Magnus's cat cuddled up between them, and the scene looking very domestic.

Clary had made copies of those sketches to give as gifts to Magnus and Alec when they first decided to move in together a couple months ago, and Magnus had displayed the framed pictures on his living room wall.

There was another sketch in Clary's book that was a black-and-white imitation of a set of photo-booth pictures of Magnus and Alec that Clary had noticed on the coffee table in the loft. The pictures had been so adorable, and Clary had wanted to draw her own interpretation of them. Magnus seemed to like her sketch art version of the pictures, because he'd asked Clary if she would make him a copy so he could add another one her sketches to the living room wall.

There was also a drawing of Alec and Magnus, walking home late at night with their arms around one another after Izzy had decided to take Jace and Clary and Magnus and Alec to a 'cool' club in the city one Saturday night after she'd just moved back home. Magnus and Alec had been much more interested in walking close to one another than joining in with the party, and Clary had tried to capture that in her sketch, with the moon and starts shining brightly in the sky above them.

When Clary next looked up from her sketchbook, she blinked in surprise when she noticed that Alec Lightwood had arrived at some point over the past few minutes while she'd been looking at her pictures. He was now sitting at his and Magnus's usual table by the window.

When he saw Clary looking over at him, Alec nodded politely at her and lifted his hand in a quick wave, but Clary couldn't help noticing that he looked kind of tense, and like he didn't want anyone to bother him at the moment.

Clary waved back, still thinking about how strange it was that she and Alec had kind of become friends now, especially after she had watched him and Magnus from a distance for so long, practically invisible.

Alec quickly returned his focus to his own table, where he'd already placed two hot drinks and a heart-shaped pastry.

Clary noticed that he kept his leather jacket on, even though it was kind of warm inside the coffee shop. Every now and again, he seemed to reach towards his pocket, a nervous expression on his face. It was like he was checking that something important was still there…

Clary had to cover up her gasp of shock as a sudden realization hit her…

No! Surely not? It couldn't be, could it? No...Alec was usually so practical, so cautious…he would say it was too soon, wouldn't he?

But then, Alec was never practical or rational when it came to his love for Magnus…

Quickly, Clary caught Jace's eye from across the room. _"What's going on?"_ she mouthed at him.

But Jace simply shrugged back at her, his face looking the picture of innocence.

Clary folded her arms and glared at him-she knew better than to be taken in by the innocent expression, or to believe that he genuinely had no idea what was going on with Alec.

With a sigh, Clary went back to looking at her sketchbook, more to give herself something to do than for any other reason, but now, it was really difficult to stay focused on her sketches when her thoughts about what Alec might be about to do kept distracting her.

Suddenly, Clary noticed a new piece of paper near the back of her sketchbook that had been folded neatly into four pieces.

She blinked in surprise a couple times. She hadn't noticed that second folded-up piece of paper today-Jace must have only recently hidden it in her book, and she was kind of curious to see what was on the page.

However, before Clary could open up the paper, she was distracted by the sound of music playing.

Quickly, she put the piece of paper down on top of her sketchbook and looked over in the direction of the piano. Sure enough, Jace was sitting at the piano, playing the opening notes of a love song.

Clary sat still and watched him for a little while. Jace played so beautifully, and it was easy to get lost in the music. Still, she couldn't help wondering all over again what was going on, especially as Jace had started to play a compilation of Magnus and Alec's favorite songs.

They were all the songs that marked special occasions in Magnus and Alec's lives since they'd started dating-songs they'd used to celebrate getting back together, and moving in together, and various anniversaries.

Once, Clary had referred to these songs as the 'Malec playlist', which she kind of regretted saying out loud, because Jace had found it hilarious, and she had a feeling that he'd talked about it with his sister, because one evening, Izzy had started casually talking about the 'Malec playlist' in the middle of a party at Magnus and Alec's apartment, which had led to Jace laughing out loud while Alec had watched them all with a frown. But still, it was hard to deny that the 'Malec playlist' was made up of some beautiful songs.

Then Clary was distracted all over again by the arrival of Magnus himself, who walked through the coffee shop door looking as stylish as ever in sparkling jeans and a black shirt, along with his usual rings on his fingers and earrings in his ears, and a touch of glitter around his eyes. He was wearing a bright red jacket over his outfit, and there were even a few matching red highlights in his hair.

Magnus walked gracefully down the stairs, looking like a professional model on a catwalk.

Instantly, Alec noticed his arrival. He looked up at Magnus and smiled, the look of tension temporarily leaving his face as he watched his boyfriend approach.

Magnus smiled back at him, looking as thrilled to see Alec as he had looked back when they'd first started dating.

Alec's eyes seemed to follow Magnus's every move as Magnus took off his jacket, delicately placed it over his seat and then gracefully sat down opposite his boyfriend.

"What? Too much?" Magnus asked with a raised eyebrow as he noticed that Alec was looking right at his chest, where a few of his buttons were unfastened.

"What? No, you're beautiful...I uh, I mean, you look beautiful," said Alec, his cheeks looking a little flushed.

Magnus grinned in response, looking pleased with himself, before he leaned over to give Alec a kiss.

Discreetly, Clary smiled at them both. There was something so magical about their relationship and the connection they shared. Jace's continued playing of romantic songs on the piano only seemed to add to the couple's bewitching effect on the rest of the room.

"What's all this about?" Magnus asked Alec after the two of them had stopped kissing and Magnus had sat back down. He pointed at the heart-shaped pastry that had been placed on the table, along with the artificial candle, and also a vase containing a couple of red roses, and then, with a confused expression on his face, he nodded over in the direction of the piano, where Jace had started to play the song _War of Hearts_ (a personal favorite of Clary's).

It was also pretty obvious that the lights in the room had been dimmed.

Even Izzy and Simon had paused their _Star Wars_ discussion so they could sit and listen in on whatever discussion was about to happen at Magnus and Alec's table.

Suddenly, the look of tension seemed to cross Alec's face again. "Magnus, I love you," he said quickly, instead of answering Magnus's question.

"I love you too, Alexander," Magnus replied just as quickly, as though his declarations of love for Alec were as natural as breathing. However, now there was a look of worry, fear almost, on Magnus's face.

From a couple of his recent conversations with Clary, she had worked out that Magnus had been badly hurt in several of his past relationships, and Clary guessed that his past hurt still made him feel a little paranoid sometimes. Right now, it seemed like he was afraid that Alec was about to announce some terrible news, or like Alec was going to follow his 'I love you' with a 'but…'

"I love how you're so kind, and caring, and generous, and how you just seem to 'get' people," Alec continued, sounding a little breathless now. He was definitely blushing, too. "I love your hair, and your eyes, and all the um…interesting outfits you always wear…"

Magnus smiled, but he continued to stare at his boyfriend with a raised eyebrow from across the table. He still looked confused as to where this little speech was going.

Clary watched them intently from across the room, her heart beating fast-she felt almost as invested in this conversation as Magnus clearly was.

In the background, Jace continued to play the piano, now playing the notes of a song that Clary recognized as _I Get to Love You_ , by the same artist who sang _War of Hearts_. Clary had been listening to the song with Jace only last week, when the two of them had been relaxing in Jace's apartment together after a long day.

"I knew I had feelings for you, even before we met here for our first date," said Alec. He looked like his hands were shaking. "I was so nervous, on those first couple of dates, but you did everything you could to make me feel comfortable. Those Friday afternoons here with you were always the best part of my week."

"The feeling was mutual," Magnus replied in barely more than a whisper, a look of adoration in his eyes as he continued to stare at Alec.

"Until I met you, I never really understood the whole relationship thing, or even the whole romance thing," said Alec, sounding a little choked up. "I never really 'got' it," he said, managing a faint grin. "But now I totally get it…Magnus, these past few weeks, since we started living together, everything has just felt so right…"

Magnus nodded, looking like he agreed.

Clary felt like she was holding her breath. She had barely moved a muscle for the past several minutes.

"When we broke-uh, when we were apart," Alec quickly corrected himself, "I told you I couldn't think straight. And it was true. But, I also realized-I don't think I can live without you."

Alec's expression was so intense as he said those words, and Magnus looked so emotional. Clary felt her own eyes fill with tears.

"Magnus, I don't ever want to be apart again," said Alec. "I only want to be with you. And uh, I'm sorry if this is too soon, and I don't even know if I'm doing this right, but…"

Slowly, Alec got up out of his seat. Then, he took a step closer to Magnus and _got down on one knee_.

Unable to help herself, Clary let out a loud gasp as she placed her hand over her heart. She'd kind of had a feeling that this might happen, but still, it didn't take away the total surprise she felt at the fact that Alec was actually _proposing_ to Magnus.

Magnus looked equally shocked.

"Magnus Bane," said Alec as he took a ring out of his pocket and looked up at Magnus, "will you marry me?"

As she waited with bated breath for Magnus's response, it was like time stood still.

At some point during the proposal, Clary had got to her feet, like she was trying to get a better view of the scene playing out in front of her. She blushed, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious about how visible she now was to the rest of the coffee shop, and how invested she was in Magnus saying 'yes' to this proposal, but when she looked around she realized that almost everyone in the coffee shop, the baristas included, were watching Magnus and Alec with just as much interest, all of them waiting for Magnus's answer.

Even Jace had stopped playing the piano so he could focus his full attention on his brother, and Isabelle Lightwood was actually standing on her seat to get a better view, so Clary guessed that maybe her own reactions would go pretty much unnoticed.

The silence continued. Alec was starting to look a little worried now. "I'm sorry," he muttered, looking shy, vulnerable, the way he'd looked during his first couple of dates with Magnus. "Did I do this wrong?"

He continued to look up nervously at Magnus-the look on his face clearly said that he was terrified Magnus was going to say no, or that he'd maybe been a little hasty in proposing today.

Alec's look of fear seemed to bring Magnus back to his senses. "Yes, I mean no, I mean-nothing of the sort, Alexander…this is perfect…" He started to blush, and he looked a little annoyed with himself for not being able to get an answer out.

"So…it that a…yes?" Alec asked with a frown as he continued to look up at Magnus, like he was trying to read Magnus's thoughts. Clary could tell that Magnus was just surprised, shocked even, by the timing of the proposal-so shocked he hadn't been able to formulate a coherent response, but it seemed like Alec hadn't worked that out just yet.

Magnus actually managed to smile as he took in the hopeful-looking expression on Alec's face. "Yes," he replied, sounding a little breathless. "Yes, Alexander, it's a yes! _Of course_ I'll marry you…if _you'll_ marry me too, that is…"

Clary smiled-she'd never seen Magnus looking so flustered before. He hardly ever babbled or stumbled over his words like this.

"Yeah, um, I figured that was kind of how this marriage thing works," said Alec in reply as a smile broke out on his face. It was the smile that he reserved just for Magnus Bane.

Alec placed the ring on Magnus's finger, slowly and gently, and then he got to his feet, and Magnus closed the gap between them.

As they kissed, the noise of the round of applause that broke out in the coffee shop was almost deafening. There were cheers and wolf-whistles and even the sound of the stamping of feet in celebration.

Clary felt tears running down her cheeks as she joined in the round of applause, laughing and crying at the same time. It was very difficult not to start screaming or dancing around the room in celebration, but she figured Alec might find that reaction a little weird.

She wasn't sure who was cheering the loudest, Jace or Izzy. Even Simon looked thrilled on Magnus and Alec's behalf.

Apparently overcome with happiness at Alec's successful proposal, Izzy grabbed hold of Simon and kissed him full on the mouth.

For a moment, Simon's eyes widened in apparent shock, but then he kissed Izzy back with just as much enthusiasm, looking perfectly happy with the way that this had worked out.

Clary grinned over at the two of them-she couldn't help wondering if this was Simon and Izzy's first kiss.

All the while, Alec and Magnus continued to kiss and embrace one another, almost oblivious to all the celebrations going on around them.

Alec seemed to be voicing some sort of insecurity about not being very good at proposals, because Magnus was whispering something in his ear about how he was amazing at proposals.

They only broke apart when Izzy ran over to them, sobbing and calling out, "Alec, I'm so proud of you!"

Izzy was closely followed by Jace, and Alec pulled both of them in for a hug. Clary noticed that Alec was actually crying now. Alec hardly ever showed emotion like that, but Clary guessed that as usual, his moments with Magnus were the exception to his self-imposed rules.

The Lightwoods held each other tight in their three-person hug. Clary smiled at the three of them-they had been through a lot, and she was happy to see them all here, together, celebrating Alec's good news.

Jace caught Clary's eye from over Alec's shoulder, and he smirked and winked at her. Alec had sworn him to secrecy about the proposal-Clary realized that now. Alec was a private person anyway, and he probably hadn't wanted to tell too many people about the proposal, in case anyone gave the secret away to Magnus, but still, Jace had wanted Clary to be here tonight, to see it for herself, to be almost as surprised as Magnus was. Clary smiled back at her boyfriend.

As the Lightwoods continued to hug, Magnus strode over to Clary with a smile on his face, and Clary hugged him tight, telling him congratulations over and over.

Even Alec walked over to give Clary a hug, after he'd broken apart from his siblings, and Clary felt kind of honored-Alec hardly ever hugged anyone who wasn't a family member or Magnus.

When Magnus went back over to the table with Alec to give Izzy and Jace a hug, Simon ran over to Clary, and Clary gave him a hug, too. They held each other tight for a couple minutes; Clary had missed him so much after they'd had their argument a few months ago, and she was glad that Simon was back in her life now. She was so scared to let him go again.

They stayed like that for a little while longer, until Izzy approached Clary for a hug.

Eventually, Izzy held out her hand to Simon so they could head to the back of the room together and leave Magnus and Alec alone for a little while, and Simon started joking about how he was going to try and get a second kiss from Izzy, 'in the spirit of the moment', before Izzy led him away.

Clary rolled her eyes at Simon's retreating back, but secretly, she was happy for him.

Jace went back to the piano to play a couple more romantic songs for Alec and Magnus in celebration of their engagement.

As the music played, the newly-engaged couple danced together in the dimly lit coffee shop, holding each other close and now looking totally oblivious to the fact that there were other people in the room.

It was only when Clary was left alone at her table for a couple minutes that she remembered the piece of paper she'd found in her sketchbook that she hadn't opened yet.

She took hold of the piece of paper and unfolded it slowly, carefully.

It was a sketch, drawn in Jace's favorite black-and-white style. Jace must have slipped into her book at some point over the past couple hours. Clary felt another tear trickle slowly her cheek as she noticed how beautiful the picture was. It was a sketch of her mom and Luke, getting married at a rooftop wedding venue that her mom had been talking about recently. In the background of the picture stood Jace and Clary, holding hands as they watched Clary's mom and Luke exchange vows, the two of them attending the wedding together, as a couple.

"I know it's not a proposal or anything…"

Clary turned around to see that Jace had walked over to her while she'd been looking at the sketch. He shrugged as he finished speaking, looking a little nervous and embarrassed, and even running a hand through his hair.

Clary stared at him in silence for a couple moments. It was so rare to see Jace looking nervous and vulnerable like this. She thought over what he'd just said-it was like he felt bad that his picture somehow hadn't matched up to Alec's proposal to Magnus.

"But I figured, if you wanna go together…"

"Jace," Clary cut him off, trying to reassure him, "it's perfect…it's amazing," she grinned, and Jace grinned back at her.

They were really going to the wedding together, as a couple.

Out of the corner of her eye, Clary could see Magnus watching the two of them with a grin. Clary had a sneaking suspicion that maybe Magnus had talked to Jace about officially asking Clary to go to her mom's wedding together.

"Did you really think I wasn't gonna go?" Jace asked her, looking surprised at the idea that Clary might have thought that.

Clary simply shrugged, trying to play it cool, while Jace muttered something about how they were going to have an amazing time, his tone of voice soft and reassuring now.

Clary pulled Jace in closer, and Jace went willingly into her arms. He started to run a hand gently over one of the curls in Clary's hair-this was something he did a lot when they were kissing.

"Hey," said Jace between kisses, the typical smirk back on his face now, "maybe you can paint a picture of the two of us at Malec's wedding." He winked at her. "Or even better, we could talk about the whole naked-sketching idea again…"

"Just shut up and kiss me," said Clary in exasperation as she pulled Jace in for another kiss.

She couldn't believe that she was here, at _The Half-Moon_ , where Magnus and Alec had just got engaged, where Simon and Izzy were on a date, where she was kissing Jace in the middle of the room, with Jace's sketch displayed on the table in front of them. Back when she'd first started college, Clary would never have believed that she'd find happiness like this in Brooklyn. Sure, there were things going on in her life that would never be perfect, but right now, Clary just wanted to live in this perfect moment.

"Maybe we can talk about the whole naked-sketch thing," Clary whispered to Jace between kisses.

"Really?" Jace asked her as he pulled away a little to look right into her eyes. His eyebrow was raised, and he looked doubtful, but also a little intrigued. "Clary, don't put the dream out there and take it away," he said in a mocking tone of voice as he placed a hand jokingly over his heart.

Clary might have rolled her eyes and muttered, "Whatever, Jace,", trying her best not to blush, but she also nodded as she pulled him back in for another kiss.

Jace might have been celebrating the possibility of an erotic sketch, but Clary was already planning a different sketch of her own-she wanted to capture this moment on paper, to draw a sketch of three happy couples at _The Half-Moon_ , with the beautiful picture of the three ships displayed on the wall behind them-Sizzy, Malec and Clace.


End file.
